UC-NRLF 


^B    ST    ATI 


OOD  AND 
LIFE 


^ansin^  -  Qulick 


GIFT   OF 


EDUCATION  DEPT. 


j^NGE  LIBRARY  OF  EDUCA^M 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/foodlifeOOIansrich 


FOOD  AND    LIFE 


BY 
MARION  FLORENCE  LANSING 

IN  COLLABORATION  WITH 

LUTHER  HALSEY  GULICK 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 
ATLANTA  •  DALLAS  •  COLUMBUS  •  SAN  FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY  MARION  FLORENCE  LANSING 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


Gift 


pHblislie- 

eOUCATION  DEPT. 


GINN  AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

Children  have  a  normal,  spontaneous  interest  in  food.  To 
a  child  each  meal  is  a  matter  of  fresh  and  vital  consequence. 
His  own  experience  prepares  him  to  appreciate  that  what  he 
eats  has  a  direct  and  important  bearing  on  his  health  and 
comfort.  He  responds  readily  to  a  call  to  take  a  more  intelli- 
gent interest  and  a  more  active  concern  in  his  food  needs  and 
habits.  War  did  a  real  service  in  bringing  people  back  from  the 
conventionally  remote  attitude  of  modern  civilization  to  a  vivid 
realization  of  the  interest  and  importance  of  this  universal 
human  need.  It  drove  home  also  the  truth  that  while  their 
elders  have  a  responsibility  for  children's  food,  children  have 
in  their  own  right  a  relation  of  their  own  to  this  as  to  other 
concerns  of  daily  life. 

To  Dr.  Gulick  there  came  as  an  inspiration  the  vision  of  a 
new  rating  of  boys  and  girls  in  all  their  social  relations.  He 
saw  them  not  only  as  ''futures,"  not  only  as  potential  citizens 
and  homemakers,  but  as  ''  presents,"  contributing  everywhere 
by  doing  their  part  as  boys  and  girls.  To  him  the  book  owes 
its  inspiration  and  inception.  His  faith  in  the  power  of  boys 
and  girls  as  an  effective  factor  in  national  life  and  service  was 
amply  justified  during  the  war.  To-day  the  government  is 
making  every  effort  to  capitalize  this  youthful  enthusiasm 
and  persistence  as  a  permanent  asset  in  our  individual  and 

V 

577421 


vi  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

community  life,  and  as  a  part  of  our  national  share  in  banishing 

famine,  waste,  and  misery  from  the  world  brotherhood.    This 

book  is  intended  to  aid  in  that  movement. 

From  its  pages  the  child  will  learn  the  facts  he  should  know 

concerning  the  great  Food  Business  into  which  he  is  born  and 

in  which  he  is  a  partner.    He  will  be  led  to  see  the  need  of  his 

becoming  an  intelligent  and  active  partner.    He  will  come  into 

a  sense  of  the  world  brotherhood  which  is  the  hope  of  the 

future.    The  ethical  side  is  often  more  natural  to  the  child  than 

the  technical  details.    There  is  hardly  a  virtue  or  an  ideal  of 

family,  community,  and  world  life  which  does  not  take  a  natural 

place  in  a  study  of  the  fundamental  human  problem  of  food. 

The  actual  facts  are  most  interesting  when  presented  simply 

and  entertainingly.    Knowledge  recently  contributed  by  science 

has  made  this  a  new  subject,  and  one  far  more  readily  grasped 

by  boys  and  girls  than  it  could  have  been  five  or  even  two  years 

ago.    With  a  sufficient  amount  of  information  to  make  the  book 

a  complete  and  satisfying  whole,  the  aim  has  been  to  suggest 

as  well  as  to  inform.    F'rom  this  book  the  child  goes  to  the 

geography  lesson,  to  the  physiology  and  domestic-science  class, 

to  the  garden,  to  the  store,  and  to  the  home  with  a  newly 

awakened  interest.     Not  only  does  he  know ;   knowing,  he  is 

stimulated  at  each  point  to  do.    The  chapters  will  serve  their 

purpose  best  if  the   knowledge   each   imparts   is  a  stimulus, 

not  an  end.    Together  they  provide  the  necessary  background 

of  information,  education,  and  inspiration  for  the  child's  life 

as  it  relates  to  and  is  interpreted  by  his  food. 

M.  F.  L. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  A  Life  Business i 

II.  The  Food  Tether 6 

III.  In  Business  for  Yourself 14 

IV.  Food  as  Fuel 21 

V.  Food  as  Fuel  (Continued) 27 

VI.  Our  Daily  Bread 36 

VII.  The  Magic  Touch 43 

VIII.  Likes  and  Dislikes 53 

IX.  A  World  Appetite 60 

X,  The  First  Step 6-] 

XL  The  Moment  of  Eating 75 

XII.  In  the  World's  Food  Market 82 

XIII.  The  Pitcher  and  the  Loaf 89 

XIV.  The  Gift  of  a  Garden 96 

XV.  Kitchen  Service 107 

XVI.  Food  and  Money 119 

XVII.  For  Future  Use 128 

XVIII.  Food  and  Health 137 

XIX.  Food  and  the  Government 145 

XX.  At  a  World  Table 153 

FACTS  AND  FIGURES l6l 

Weight  as  a  Test.  The  Garrison  Ration  with  its 
Substitutes.  The  Calorie.  The  ioo-Calorie  Portion. 
Taste  and  Smell.  Milk.  School  Children  and  the 
Government.  Three  Meals  a  Day.  For  Further 
Reference. 

INDEX i8r 

vii 


M  <U 

o 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 

CHAPTER  I 

A  LIFE  BUSINESS 

Boys  and  girls  often  talk  over  what  they  will  do  in 
life.  They  wonder  what  calling  they  will  follow  when 
they  are  men  and  women.  There  is  one  business  into 
which  everyone  is  born,  a  business  which  everyone 
will  surely  follow  all  his  life.  This  is  the  food  business. 
Three  times  a  day,  seven  days  in  the  week,  fifty-two 
weeks  in  the  year,  —  to  say  nothing  of  odd  times  be- 
tween,—  every  boy  and  girl,  every  man  and  woman, 
wishes,  expects,  and  needs  food.  To  get  this  food  is 
man's  chief  business  in  life.  So  it  must  always  be. 
When  this  is  attended  to,  then  and  then  only  can  he 
go  about  other  matters. 

To  enter  into  this  business  you  who  read  this  book 
need  not  make  a  special  request  or  application  to-day. 
You  did  that  long  ago.  From  the  moment  when  as 
a  tiny  baby  you  first  cried  for  food,  you  have  been 
enrolled  on  its  lists.  The  minute  you  were  born,  Life, 
the  manager  of  this  business  firm  or  company,  took 
you  into  partnership  and  set  you  to  work.    So  it  takes 


^  iV. .  •  • : :     ••  /.\ ',:  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

into  partnership  every  living  thing,  whether  it  be 
plant  or  animal.  Without  food  existence  is  impossible. 
No  plant  is  so  independent  that  it  can  live  without 
food;  no  animal  body  is  so  built  that  it  can  go  more 
than  a  short  time  without  nourishment. 

When  a  young  man  is  received  into  a  business,  he 
is  expected  to  take  some  share  in  carrying  it  on.  You 
have  done  a  good  bit  of  work  in  the  company  already. 
When  you  were  born  you  weighed  seven  or  eight 
or  nine  pounds.  In  a  few  months  you  doubled  that 
weight.  Think  how  much  you  weigh  now.  All  this 
weight  and  growth  have  come  directly  from  the  food 
you  have  eaten.  That  you  have  used  this  food  well 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  you  are  strong  and  healthy 
and  that  you  weigh  six,  seven,  or  eight  times  as  much 
as  you  did  in  the  first  weeks  or  months  of  your  life. 
It  is  a  good  business  partner  who  can  make  such  big 
returns  in  a  few  short  years. 

Man's  section  of  this  great  food  enterprise  of  the 
world  has  three  main  departments.  One  has  for  its 
headquarters  the  land ;  here  the  food  must  be  raised. 
In  this  department  Nature  takes  the  heavier  share  of 
the  work,  man  doing  only  a  small  assisting  part.  In 
the  second  department  man  is  the  active  agent.  He 
acts  as  middleman,  delivering  the  food  which  has 
been  grown  on  the  land  to  the  human  body  in  a  form 
in  which  it  can  be  taken.  The  food  is  bought  or  ex- 
changed, transported,  prepared,  cooked,  and  served. 
Commerce,  conservation,  cooperation,  all  are  needed 


U.  S.  Food  Administration 
"  IT   TAKES   ALL   SORTS   OF    PEOPLE    TO    FEED    THE   WORLD  " 


4  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

here.  The  third  department  has  as  many  separate 
stations  as  there  are  people  in  the  world.  In  each 
human  body  the  food  must  be  eaten,  digested,  and 
distributed. 

It  is  interesting  to  be  in  business.  You  have  found 
it  so  already.  You  will  find  it  increasingly  so  the 
more  you  know  about  this  business  and  the  more  you 
share  in  it.  Let  us  check  up  the  part  which  you  as 
a  boy  or  girl  can  have.  Let  us  see  what  part  you  are 
already  having. 

In  the  third  department  —  the  eating  department  — 
you  give  place  to  no  one.  Food  is  one  of  the  chief 
joys  of  life  to  hungry  boys  and  girls.  You  want  it, 
you  enjoy  it,  and,  as  the  old  phrase  goes,  it  agrees 
with  you.  You  turn  it  to  the  best  of  use.  You  grow 
tall  and  broaden  out  each  year  until  you  are  of  age 
and  have  reached  your  natural  limit  of  growth. 

In  the  second  department  —  the  buying,  preparing, 
cooking,  and  serving  —  you  are  having  an  increasing 
part  each  year.  In  the  first  department  —  the  raising 
of  food  —  your  garden  entitles  you  to  a  place.  There 
is,  then,  not  a  single  division  in  this  great  world  busi- 
ness, except  perhaps  the  buying,  where  you  must 
wait  to  take  any  share  until  you  are  grown  up.  You 
are  in  each  department  now. 

If  you  are  partners  in  a  business,  you  cannot  afford 
not  to  know  about  it.  The  only  way  an  office  ■  boy 
ever  works  up  to  a  higher  position  is  by  finding  out 
all  about  the  departments  in  which  he   is  working. 


A  LIFE  BUSINESS  5 

This  book  is  to  tell  you  about  this  huge  Food  Concern, 
with  its  powerful  silent  partners,  Nature  and  Life,  and 
its  active  agents,  of  whom  each  of  you  is  one.  It  will 
tell  the  facts  that  you  must  know  in  order  to  succeed 
in  your  part  of  the  business ;  it  will  show  you  what 
other  agents  are  doing  and  how  you  can  work  with 
them ;  it  will  help  you  to  get  the  biggest  returns  out 
of  your  partnership  and  do  your  utmost  to  make  this 
great  world  Food  Business  succeed. 

QUESTIONS 

What  is  the  one  business  in  which  every  human  being  must  take 
part  ? 

What  are  its  three  departments  ? 

In  how  many  of  its  departments  have  you  taken  a  share  ? 

How  much  have  you  increased  in  weight  since  you  were  born  ? 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FOOD  TETHER 

Need  for  food  is  a  tether  which  keeps  man  tied  to 
the  land.  Columbus  was  able  to  discover  America  be- 
cause he  could  take  in  the  holds  of  his  ships  food 
enough  to  keep  his  crew  alive  until  he  reached  shore. 
As  often  as  his  men  grew  discouraged  they  would  be- 
gin to  figure  on  the  food  supply.  "  We  have  sailed  for 
so  many  days  and  eaten  so  much  food,"  they  would 
say.  "We  can  sail  home  safely  on  the  food  we  have. 
If  we  keep  on  and  do  not  find  land,  we  shall  run  short 
of  food  and  die."  Just  as  we  are  learning  to-day  that  a 
hungry  nation  tends  toward  anarchy,  so  every  explorer 
of  that  day  knew  that  a  hungry  crew  was  always  ripe  for 
mutiny.  The  success  of  a  voyage  depended  on  whether 
the  leader's  faith  in  the  unknown  land  ahead  could 
hold  the  balance  true  against  the  discouraging  pull 
upon  the  spirits  of  his  men  of  a  decreasing  food  supply. 

So  much  food,  so  many  days  of  life :  that  is  the  rule. 
As  a  man  is  held  down  to  earth  by  the  force  of  gravity, 
which  keeps  him  from  being  tossed  hither  and  yon  by 
every  wind  that  blows,  so  he  is  held  to  his  home  and 
his  everyday  life  by  this  tether.  It  anchors  him  as 
firmly  as  a  cord  ever  held  a  flying  kite. 


THE  FOOD  TETHER  7 

You  know  the  story  of  the  old-time  giant  Antaeus, 
the  famous  wrestler,  who  renewed  his  strength  every 
time  he  touched  earth.  Even  so  man  is  held  to  the  land. 
Hercules  overcame  the  giant  by  holding  him  up  from 
the  earth.  Think  what  circumstances  draw  men  away 
from  their  food  supply.  War  is  one ;  city  life  is  another ; 
flood  or  earthquake  or  similar  natural  disasters  may  be 
others.   We  shall  talk  about  some  of  them  later. 

Man's  tether  is  longer  than  that  of  any  other  living 
creature.  He  owes  its  length  to  his  adaptable  body 
and  his  clever  mind.  In  food  necessities,  as  in  the 
matter  of  climate,  he  is  wonderfully  adaptable.  Most 
birds  and  animals  eat  only  a  few  kinds  of  food ;  man 
eats  almost  anything  that  any  member  of  the  animal 
world  eats.  Next  to  man  the  English  sparrow,  the 
dog,  and  the  cat  are  said  to  be  most  adaptable  in  their 
food  requirements.  Matching  the  marvelous  body 
machine,  which  can  make  use  of  almost  any  kind  of 
foodstuff,  is  the  clever  mind,  which  has  devised  ways 
to  prepare,  store,  preserve,  and  transport  food.  The 
animal  eats  raw  the  food  which  he  finds,  and  eats  it  at 
or  near  the  place  where  he  has  found  it.  Man  cooks, 
dries,  cans,  and  in  a  thousand  ways  treats  his  food  to 
meet  his  needs.  His  adaptable  body  lets  him  travel 
and  dwell  wherever  the  land  is  fertile;  his  ingenious 
mind  enables  him  to  store  and  carry  his  food  until  he 
is  free  to  encircle  the  globe. 

Peary  could  reach  the  north  pole  because  twenty 
years  of  study  had  taught  him  what  food  to  carry  and 


8  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

in  what  form  to  carry  it  so  that  his  men  might  bear  the 
strain  of  that  terrible  arctic  journey.  He  could  go  far 
beyond  the  usual  limit  of  man's  travels.  He  could  leave 
behind  fertile  lands  where  food  abounded  and  go  into 
the  wilderness,  where  little  or  no  food  could  be  found. 


TRANSPORTING    THE    ARCTIC    RATION 


He  planned  and  selected  by  a  standard  which  we 
who  live  at  home  need  not  consider.  The  food  had 
to  occupy  as  little  space  and  be  as  light  in  weight  as 
possible.  Every  added  ounce  of  weight  to  be  carried 
took  just  so  much  from  the  needed  strength  of  his 
men;  every  foot  of  the  small  space  on  the  sledges 
must  be  used  to  the  best  advantage. 

This  is  what  he  says  about  his  supplies : 

The  essentials,  and  the  only  essentials,  needed  in  a  serious 
arctic  journey,  no  matter  what  the  season,  the  temperature,  or 
the  duration  of  the  journey  —  whether  one  month  or  six  —  are 


THE  FOOD  TETHER  9 

four :  pemmican,  tea,  ship's  biscuit,  condensed  milk.  Pemmi- 
can  is  a  prepared  and  condensed  food,  made  from  beef,  fat, 
and  dried  fruits.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  concentrated 
and  satisfying  of  all  meat  foods. 

With  these  essentials  Peary  packed  his  sledges  to 
support  their  crew  of  men  and  dogs  for  the  fifty  days' 
dash  for  the  pole.  The  bottom  layer  was  of  dog 
pemmican  in  red  tins,  covering  the  entire  length  and 
width  of  the  sledge ;  then  came  two  layers  of  biscuit 
and  of  crew  pemmican  in  blue  tins  •  then  the  con- 
densed milk. 

The  standard  daily  ration  for  work  on  the  final  sledge  jour- 
ney towards  the  pole  was  one  pound  of  pemmican,  one  pound 
of  ship's  biscuit,  four  ounces  of  condensed  milk,  one-half 
ounce  of  compressed  tea,  and  six  ounces  of  liquid  fuel  (alcohol 
or  petroleum). 

This  made  a  total  of  two  pounds,  four  and  a  half 
ounces  of  solids  per  man  per  day.  "On  this  ration," 
adds  Peary,  "a  man  can  work  hard  and  keep  in  good 
condition  in  the  lowest  temperatures  for  a  very  long 
time.  I  believe  that  no  other  item  of  food,  either  for 
heat  or  muscle  building,  is  needed." 

An  army  can  advance  from  its  base  of  supplies 
only  so  far  as  food  can  be  brought  to  it.  Long 
ago  Napoleon  said,  "An  army  travels  on  its  stomach." 
A  friend  of  mine,  who  was  in  Italy  as  a  Red  Cross 
worker  at  the  time  of  the  Austrian  surrender,  fed 
in  the  mountain  passes  Austrian  soldiers  who  had  had 
no  food  for  five  days.    No  army  so  poorly  provisioned 


lO  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

could  hold  out.  Germany  did  not  believe  any  army 
could  operate  three  thousand  miles  from  its  base  of 
supplies.  Read  the  army  ration  of  the  American  sol- 
dier in  France,  the  best-fed  soldier  in  the  world,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  despised  Yankee  taught  even  the 
scientific  German  a  lesson  in  food  supply.  Compare 
it  with  Peary's  emergency  ration  for  his  fateful  fifty 
days'  dash.  The  total  is  over  four  and  a  half  pounds 
as  against  Peary's  two  and  a  quarter  pounds. 

The  garrison  ration  of  the  American  soldier  was 
one  and  a  quarter  pounds  of  fresh  beef,  one  and  an 
eighth  pounds  of  flour,  one  and  a  quarter  pounds 
of  potatoes,  and  beans,  prunes,  coffee,  sugar,  milk, 
vinegar,  salt,  pepper,  lard,  butter,  sirup,  and  baking 
powder  in  varying  amounts,  making  a  total  of  about 
four  and  a  half  pounds.  Parallel  with  this  list  are 
many  substitutes  for  each  article  of  food.  Flour,  for 
instance,  is  not  served  by  the  pound  as  the  grocer 
would  hand  it  over  the  counter.  That  would  hardly 
help  the  soldier  in  his  food  problem.  The  flour  part 
of  the  ration  appears  in  bread,  hominy,  corn  meal, 
crackers,  and  oatmeal.  Prunes  are  varied  with  apples, 
peaches,  pears,  pineapple,  jam,  jelly,  and  ''assorted 
preserves."    (The  full  ration  is  given  on  page   164.) 

Later  we  shall  talk  more  about  the  body  ration 
necessary  for  continued  health  and  comfort.  Now  we 
are  interested  in  the  ration  as  a  measure  of  man's 
independence.  With  this  amount  of  food  supplied 
him  he  could  carry  on  a  war  anywhere. 


12 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Columbus,  Peary,  and  Pershing  had  to  provide  a 
fixed  daily  allowance,  or  ration,  because  they  had  taken 
their  men  off  the  land  —  Columbus  out  on  the  sea, 
Peary  over  the  ice,  and  Pershing  into  camps  or  out 
across  No  Man's  Land,  where  they  could  do  nothing 


FOOD    FOR   A    DESERT   JOURNEY 

to  supply  themselves  with  food.  Belgium  had  to  be 
put  on  rations  because  its  land  was  laid  waste  or  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  England  went  on  rations 
because  the  land  area  for  food  cultivation  of  the  British 
Isles  is  not  sufficient  for  the  feeding  of  her  population. 
She  depends  always  on  food  brought  from  overseas. 
Before  the  war  it  used  to  be  said  that  she  kept  three 
weeks  ahead  of  her  needs  in  provisions.  With  sub- 
marines sinking  the  incoming  food  in  mid-ocean,  she 
had  to  put  her  people  on  limited  rations.    China  suffers 


THE  FOOD  TETHER 


13 


from  famine  when  the  floods  cover  the  rice  fields. 
Whenever  people  are  cut  off  from  the  land  where 
their  food  is  raised,  the  tether  pulls  them  back. 

It  has  been  good  for  man  to  be  pulled  up  short  in 
this  way.  Otherwise  he  might  have  become  a  careless, 
idle,  roaming  creature.  It  is  good  for  you  that  you 
must  report  three  times  a  day  at  table.  Many  a  time 
you  go  out  saying  "  I  will  be  back  in  time  for  supper  " 
or  "  for  dinner."  As  the  farmer  is  held  to  the  land 
which  he  tills,  so  all  of  us  are  blessedly  held  to  our 
homes  and  our  work  by  our  need  for  food. 

QUESTIONS 

How  is  man  tied  to  the  land  ? 

How  has  he  lengthened  his  tether  ? 

Why  must  any  people  ever  be  put  on  rations  ? 


CHAPTER  III 

IN  BUSINESS  FOR  YOURSELF 

Mr.  Smith  was  a  candy  manufacturer.  His  son  John 
wanted  to  go  into  the  business,  and  Mr.  Smith  wanted 
to  take  him  into  it.  But  he  wanted  John  to  learn  the 
candy  business  before  he  became  his  partner.  So  he 
said  to  John :  "  How  would  it  be  for  me  to  set  you  up 
in  business  for  yourself  ?  I  will  give  you  a  little  factory 
for  your  own.  I  will  put  in  the  machinery  and  buy  the 
supplies  to  start  you.  Then  you  can  go  ahead  and 
manage  it."  John  wanted  the  factory.  He  was  eager 
for  the  chance.  But  he  did  not  think  that  he  knew 
enough  about  the  actual  making  of  the  candy  to  risk  it. 
Mr.  Smith  saw  that  John  was  right.  "  I  will  do  more," 
he  said.  "  I  will  give  you  one  of  my  best  foremen. 
He  knows  all  about  the  process  of  making  candy. 
He  will  attend  to  that  for  you,  and'  your  mind  will  be 
left  free  for  the  other  parts  of  the  business." 

Nature  did  the  same  thing  for  you  that  Mr.  Smith 
did  for  his  son.  She  set  you  up  in  business  for  your- 
self. She  gave  you  the  most  wonderful  machine  in 
the  world  —  your  body.  It  belongs  to  you  and  to  no 
one  else.  You  are  in  full  charge.  But  Nature  did  not 
go  away  and  leave  you  the  whole  business  of  manag- 
ing it.  If  you  had  consciously  to  manage  and  direct  the 


IN  BUSINESS  FOR  YOURSELF  15 

various  activities  that  are  going  on  all  the  time  within 
your  body,  you  would  have  no  time  or  thought  for 
anything  else.  You  would  be  nearly  distracted  send- 
ing your  thoughts  here  and  there  to  see  that  your 
heart  kept  beating,  and  your  lungs  kept  breathing, 
and  your  blood  kept  moving,  and  your  whole  body 
kept  growing.  Attending  to  the  food  business  alone 
would  drive  you  crazy,  for  it  goes  on  night  and  day, 
Sundays  and  holidays. 

Nature  wished  your  thinking  self  to  be  free  for 
other  things  than  the  running  of  your  body.  So,  like 
Mr.  Smith,  she  gave  you  a  foreman.  This  foreman  is 
your  Other  Self ;  it  is  really  You,  for  it  is  part  of  You, 
but  so,  for  that  matter,  is  your  body  You.  It  is  not, 
however,  the  thinking,  attending,  conscious  You.  It  is 
a  Body  Self  which  knows  how  to  run  the  mechanical 
processes  of  your  body,  and  which  attends  to  them 
whether  you  are  paying  attention  or  not. 

We  stopped  in  the  middle  of  Mr.  Smith's  talk  with 
his  son.  Mr.  Smith  was  willing  to  provide  John  with  a 
foreman,  but  said :  "  If  you  are  to  be  a  successful  candy 
manufacturer,  you  must  know  every  step  of  the  proc- 
ess of  candy-making.  You  must  watch  the  foreman 
and  each  worker,  and  question  them  until  you  know 
exactly  what  takes  place  in  each  room  of  the  factory. 
You  must  know  not  only  the  raw  products  (sugar, 
milk,  water,  flavoring)  and  the  finished  products  (candy 
in  pound  and  five-pound  boxes)  but  also  how  they  are 
mixed,  heated,  cooled,  molded,  and  packed.    No  man 


1 6  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

is  fit  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  business  who  does  not 
have  every  detail  of  that  business  clearly  in  his  mind. 
He  will  make  mistakes  in' buying  his  materials,  selling 
his  products,  or  handling  his  employees." 

It  was  not  hard  for  John  to  learn  the  business.  He 
could  go  and  ask  his  foreman  questions.  If  man's 
Body  Self  had  been  able  to  talk,  science  would  have 
been  saved  thousands  of  experiments.  But  though  the 
Body  Self  attended  to  its  business  and  did  it  well, 
it  kept  so  quiet  about  it  that  the  endless  curiosity  of 
man  down  all  the  centuries  hardly  sufficed  to  find  out 
how  the  food  business  inside  his  own  body  was  run. 

People  had  such  strange  ideas.  Philosophers  used  to 
sit  down  and  try  to  imagine  what  could  be  happening 
to  this  food  which  they  ate.  Each  day  they  ate  it,  and 
it  disappeared.  The  body  into  which  it  was  dropped 
took  it  in  but  did  not  increase  in  weight.  No  other 
vessel  could  have  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  pounds 
of  matter  dropped  into  it  in  a  year  and,  except  for  some 
waste,  give  no  sign  of  what  became  of  it.  In  some  way 
it  kept  the  body  alive,  but  how  they  could  not  imagine. 

Then  came  a  brilliant  group  of  men  who  made  the 
body  tell  some  of  its  secrets.  One  discovered  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood,  the  river  of  life  flowing  into  every  part 
of  the  body.  Two  others  discovered  oxygen,  that  ele- 
ment in  the  air  which  combining  with  other  substances 
"  makes  them  burn."  Year  after  year  secrets  were  un- 
covered until  now  you  and  I  can  almost  hear  our  Body 
Selves  talk  if  we  let  the  scientists  act  as  interpreters.^ 


IN  BUSINESS  FOR  YOURSELF 


17 


Suppose  this  Body  Self  did  talk.  It  might  like  to 
tell  you,  as  its  chief,  some  things.  Foremen  are  always 
going  to  their  chiefs  with  requests  and  suggestions. 
It  might  even  begin  by  complaining.  It  might  say 
to  you: 

"  Do  you  realize  the  work  you  are  making  me  do  ? 
I  must  keep  your  heart  beating ;  that  alone  is  as  much 


THE    NOON    LUNCH    AT    AN    OPEN-AIR    SCHOOL 
Food  furnishes  heat-energy  to  keep  these  children  warm 

work  in  a  single  day  as  it  would  be  to  lift  a  man  twenty- 
five  hundred  feet  into  the  air.  I  must  keep  your  chest 
moving.  I  must  keep  your  body  warm.  All  these  things 
I  must  do,  and  then  I  must  be  ready  to  supply  energy 
for  everything  you  do.  If  you  kept  still  I  should  even 
then  have  work  enough  to  do,  but  you  walk  and  run, 
you  dig  in  the  garden.  Sometimes  it  seems  to  me  as 
if  you  were  never  still  a  minute." 


l8  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

You  do  work  your  foreman  hard.  You  expect  a 
great  deal  of  your  body ;  you  are  always  calling  on  it 
for  energy.  This  you  may  do  because  you  supply  it 
with  food.  Your  foreman  will  not  complain  if  you  give 
him  the  materials  he  needs.  He  will  not  waste  them ; 
he  will  even  save  and  store  some  of  them.  But  he  must 
have  them  if  he  is  to  supply  you  with  the  energy  you 
need,  first,  to  keep  your  body  machinery  running  and, 
next,  to  do  the  work  you  want  to  do.  This  energy  your 
foreman  would  measure  in  terms  of  heat,  for  heat  is  a 
form  of  energy,  and  it  is  heat-energy  which  keeps  your 
body  going. 

Paracelsus,  a  Swiss  physician  who  was  born  the 
year  after  Columbus  discovered  America,  thought 
there  really  was  a  spirit  that  lived  in  the  stomach  and 
separated  the  food,  the  good  from  the  bad.  If  there 
were  such  a  spirit  living  in  the  stomach,  he  would  not 
be  separating  good  from  bad.  First  of  all  he  would  be 
testing  your  food  to  see  how  much  heat-energy  there 
was  stored  in  it.  Each  tiny  cell  in  the  body  is  a  little 
furnace.  The  foodstuff  which  comes  to  it  from  your 
eating  is  the  "  coal  "  ;  the  oxygen  which  comes  to  it 
through  the  lungs  from  your  breathing  "  makes  it  burn." 
When  coal  burns  in  a  stove,  carbon  in  the  coal  is  uniting 
with  oxygen  of  the  air,  and  as  a  result  energy  is  given 
off  in  the  form  of  heat.  Shut  off  the  oxygen,  the  draft 
of  air,  in  a  stove  and  the  coal  will  not  burn.  Let  in  air 
through  a  wide-open  draft  without  putting  in  much 
coal  and  the  fire  will  burn  out.   The  oxygen  from  your 


IN  BUSINESS  FOR  YOURSELF  19 

lungs  is  ready  to  meet  in  the  cells  the  food  liquid  from 
your  stomach  and  "  burn  "  in  each  of  a  million  cells. 
Then  from  each  of  these  cells  will  come  the  heat-energy 
which  is  needed  not  only  to  keep  your  heart  beating 
but  to  enable  you  to  run  and  jump  and  play  and  work. 

This  Paracelsus-spirit,  sitting  in  your  stomach  and 
watching  the  food  as  it  came  down  from  your  mouth, 
would  have  for  one  of  his  instruments  a  food  thermom- 
eter. It  would  not  be  quite  like  our  thermometers. 
They  test  temperature  by  seeing  how  high  a  thread 
of  mercury  rises.  This  spirit  in  the  stomach  would  be 
testing  to  see  how  much  heat  could  be  gotten  out  of 
each  bit  of  food  when  it  met  oxygen  in  the  cells. 

When  the  scientist  found  out  that  one  of  the 
chief  things  the  body  wanted  from  food  was  possible 
heat-energy,  he  began  to  test  every  kind  of  food  for 
heat-energy.  He  had  it  meet  oxygen  in  his  tube  as  it 
would  meet  oxygen  in  the  cell.  He  found  that  each 
food  responded  by  giving  out  a  particular  amount  of 
heat.  So  he  said  to  himself :  "  I  will  make  a  food  ther- 
mometer and  measure  the  food  before  I  put  it  into  the 
body.  Then  I  shall  know  how  much  heat  it  will  give 
out  in  the  body."  He  called  his  food  thermometer  by 
the  less  familiar  name  of  calorimeter,  but  the  two  words 
really  mean  the  same,  each  being  a  "  heat-measure  "  — 
thermox^^i^x  from  the  Greek  word  for  heat,  calorvci\^X.^x 
from  the  Latin  word  for  heat. 

That  was  a  great  day  when  men  found  out  how  to 
measure  food  as  if  it  were  fuel.    After  that  they  could 


20 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


find  out  how  much  fuel  the  body  needed.  When  they 
had  done  that,  and  learned  some  other  facts,  explorers 
and  aviators  could  plan  their  emergency  rations,  the 
army  could  select  intelligently  its  fighting  ration,  and 
you  and  I  could  run  our  food  business  properly,  giving 
our  bodies  the  materials  they  need. 

QUESTIONS 

How  did  Nature  set  you  up  in  business  ? 
What  becomes  of  much  of  the  food  we  eat  ? 

In  what  sense  may  we  call  the  body  an  engine  ?    What  does  it  do 
for  us  ? 

For  what  does  the  body  test  the  food  we  give  to  it  ? 


CHAPTER  IV 
FOOD  AS  FUEL 

It  is  one  thing  to  drop  food  into  a  mysterious  cavity 
like  the  leather  bag  of  Jack  the  Giant  Killer;  it  is 
quite  another  to  supply  fuel  for  a  furnace  from  which 
a  known  amount  of  heat  is  required.  Jack's  only  con- 
cern was  that  the  giant  should  see  a  certain  amount 
of  food  disappear.  He  could  throw  in  all  kinds,  hit 
or  miss,  the  faster  the  better.  Sometimes  we  are  in 
danger  of  treating  our  bodies  as  if  they  were  Jack's 
leather  bag.  Then  we  do  well  to  remind  ourselves  that 
they  are  furnaces  or  engines,  with  food  as  their  fuel. 
They  can  be  misused  more  than  most  furnaces  with- 
out getting  out  of  order,  but  even  their  fires  will  finally 
run  low  if  not  fed  properly  or  if  choked. 

We  know  how  much  heat  we  require  from  the  body 
furnace.  Many  thousands  of  tests  have  established  that, 
until  it  is  a  matter  of  arithmetic  like  the  price  of  beef 
or  eggs.  Do  a  certain  piece  of  work  and  you  use  up  a 
certain  number  of  calories  of  heat.  The  calorie  is  the 
unit  of  heat  as  it  is  measured  by  the  food  thermometer, 
or  calorimeter.  Get  up  from  the  chair  in  which  you 
are  now  sitting,  walk  eight  feet,  turn,  walk  back,  and 
sit  down  again;  you  will  have  used  about  one  calorie 

21 


22  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

of  heat  more  than  if  you  had  kept  still.  A  certain 
number  of  calories  to  keep  the  body  going,  a  smaller 
number  in  addition  for  our  voluntary  acts  like  walk- 
ing, stretching,  eating,  running,  and  playing, —  such  is 
the  requirement  for  fuel  for  our  body  furnace.  Every 
muscle  movement  that  we  make  uses  a  certain  amount 
of  heat-energy.  Boys  and  girls  use  up  more  calories 
in  proportion  to  their  weight  than  men  and  women. 
That  is  partly  because  they  are  growing  so  fast,  partly 
because  they  are  more  active.  Here  is  a  table -^  by  which 
you  can  find  out  for  yourself  the  number  of  calories  of 
heat-energy  which  you  require  from  your  body  in  a  day. 


Age 

Number  of  Calories  per  Day 

Under  i  year 

45  calories  per  pound 

1-2  years 

45-40  calories  per  pound 

2-5  years 

40-36  calories  per  pound 

6-9  years 

36-32  calories  per  pound 

10-13  years 

34-27  calories  per  pound 

14-17  years 

30-22  calories  per  pound 

To  figure  out  what  you  require,  find  your  place  in 
the  table  by  age  and  multiply  your  weight  in  pounds 
by  the  number  of  calories  opposite  your  age.  Since 
two  numbers  are  given  in  the  calorie  list,  multiply  first 
by  the  first  number  given,  then  by  the  second ;  some- 
where between  these  two  results  lies  your  average 
daily  requirement.  Suppose  you  are  ten  years  old 
and  weigh  60  pounds.    In  the  table,  for  children  from 

1  From  H.  C.  Sherman's  "Chemistry  of  Food  and  Nutrition,"  1918. 


TAKING    THE   WEEKLY    WEIGHT   RECORD 


24  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

ten  to  thirteen  years  of  age  the  number  of  calories  is 
from  34  to  27.  Multiplying  34  by  60  we  get  2040; 
multiplying  27  by  60  we  get  1620.  According  to  how 
fast  you  are  growing  and  how  lively  you  are,  you  are 
asking  your  body  to  furnish  from  1600  to  2000  calories 
of  heat  a  day.  The  average  for  a  man  of  ordinary 
habits  of  life  is  from  2500  to  3000  calories  a  day.  An 
active  farmer  uses  about  3500,  a  Maine  lumberman  at 
the  height  of  the  working  season,  5800.  A  baby,  weigh- 
ing only  a  few  pounds,  uses  more  heat-energy  or  does 
more  "  work  "  in  proportion  to  its  weight  than  anyone 
except  a  very  hard-working  laborer. 

To  run  your  food  business  properly  on  the  fuel  side, 
you  must  keep  a  sort  of  balance  sheet,  putting  in  as 
much  heat  in  fuel  as  you  take  out  in  energy.  When 
your  father  is  to  leave  the  furnace  fire  for  the  day,  or 
when  he  orders  coal  for  the  winter,  he  does  not  regulate 
the  amount  of  coal  by  guesswork  or  any  haphazard 
process.  He  knows  by  experience  about  how  much 
coal  it  takes  to  keep  the  fire  going  at  the  proper  rate 
all  day  or  all  winter,  and  he  supplies  that  amount. 
When  he  goes  on  a  long  trip  in  his  automobile,  he 
does  not  start  out  blindly,  hoping  that  the  gasoline  in 
his  tank  will  keep  the  engine  going  and  the  wheels 
turning  to  cover  the  number  of  miles  of  his  trip.  He 
balances  gallons  of  gasoline  against  engine  output  or, 
in  this  case,  against  miles  covered  by  a  given  engine 
output.  If  the  two  balance  he  may,  barring  accidents, 
depend  on  his  engine  to  do  the  work  required. 


FOOD  AS  FUEL 


25 


The  output  of  the  body  is  too  varied  to  be  measured 
in  miles ;  the  food  fuel  cannot  be  measured  in  quarts. 
Both  can,  however,  be  measured  in  these  calories,  these 
heat-units.  This  makes  possible  a  rough  figuring  of  a 
balance  sheet.    Two  drops  of  fat  contribute  a  calorie 


r-«"3^'.&^~ 


IQQ 

Cabrie 
Portions/1  ,,  _ 


1^  ^  i    ^ 


m^^fW 


Women's  Municipal  League,  Boston 
100-CALORIE    PORTIONS 


See  also  list,  page  170 

of  heat.  Three  lumps  of  sugar  furnish  extra  energy 
enough  for  walking  a  mile.  Two  slices  of  bread,  or  a 
large  boiled  egg,  or  a  little  over  half  a  cup  of  milk,  or  a 
medium-sized  ripe  banana  —  each  of  these  furnishes 
one  hundred  calories.  The  cook  or  the  purchaser  of 
raw  or  cooked  food  can  easily  learn  to  estimate  the  fuel 
value  of  every  food.   So  interested  have  people  become 


26 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


in  this  food-test  that  many  restaurants  have  added 
a  new  column  to  their  menu,  giving  not  only  the 
food  and  its  price  but  also  the  number  of  calories  in 
the  portion  served. 

To  most  of  us  eating  by  calories  would  be  tiresome. 
We  are  not  mere  mechanical  machines.  We  prefer  to 
think  of  our  food  as  appetizing  and  hunger-satisfying ; 
we  should  weary  of  thinking  of  it  as  energy-producing. 
Yet,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  that  Body  Self  of  ours 
will  still  be  checking  off  what  we  eat  with  the  food 
thermometer.  To  keep  the  Body  Self  well  supplied  is 
one  of  our  first  duties. 


CHAPTER  V 
FOOD  AS  FUEL  (Continued) 

The  fuel  value  of  a  food  depends  largely  on  the  heat 
that  has  gone  into  its  composition.  It  is  the  old  story 
that  you  can  take  out  of  a  thing  only  what  has  been 
put  into  it. 

Nature  is  man's  first  and  chief  cook.  With  the 
heat  from  her  great  stove,  the  sun,  she  combines  or 
"  cooks  "  in  the  tiny  mixing  pots  of  plants,  the  cells, 
the  ingredients  which  go  to  make  up  our  food.  This 
food  has  fuel  value  according  to  the  amount  of  heat 
which  has  been  taken  up  by  it  in  the  process  of 
"  cooking." 

Practically  all  that  we  eat  is  either  plant  food  or 
animal  food,  either  vegetables,  grains,  and  cereals  or 
meat,  fish,  eggs,  and  milk.  All  foods  have  some  fuel 
value;  some  have  far  more  heat-energy  stored  up  in 
them  than  others.  The  fuel  value  in  calories  of  all 
common  foods  has  been  calculated  and  can  be  found 
in  government  lists.  Let  us  see  if  we  can  tell  why 
some  of  the  plant  and  animal  foods  furnish  more 
heat  energy  than   others. 

Let  us  go  back  to  the  Long  Ago  and  suppose  a  time 

when   plants   and   animals  were   almost   alike.    This 

27 


28  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

sounds  like  the  beginning  of  a  fairy  story,  but  there 
really  are  some  plants  that  are  so  like  animals,  and 
some  tiny  animals  that  are  so  like  plants,  that  it  takes 
a  microscope  and  a  learned  scientist  to  name  one  a 
plant  and  the  other  an  animal.  There  were  a  good 
many  of  these  living  structures  made  up  of  tiny  cells, 
and  some  were  going  to  be  animals  and  some  were 
going  to  be  plants.  All  of  them  got  their  energy  from 
the  sun.  After  the  world  was  started,  it  had  to  have 
some  great  store  of  energy  to  keep  it  going,  and  that 
source  of  energy  is  the  sun.  The  sun  is  giving  its 
energy  out  freely.  It  comes  in  a  steady  stream  to 
plants  and  animals  alike.  Its  coming  is  like  money 
pouring  in  on  a  person.  The  question  is.  What  will  he 
do  with  it?  He  must  choose  to  do  one  of  two  things, 
either  spend  it  or  keep  it  to  pass  on  to  his  children. 
In  the  fairy  story  of  Long  Ago  that  I  am  telling  you, 
suppose  that  some  of  these  living  groups  of  cells  had 
the  question  put  to  them  as  to  what  they  were  going 
to  do  with  this  sun-energy  which  came  to  them  in 
sun-heat  and  sun-light.  Whether  they  were  asked  the 
question  or  not,  we  know  what  they  did. 

Plants  said,  "  We  will  keep  this  energy,  storing  it 
for  our  children  and  for  our  own  use  in  the  days  when 
the  sun  does  not  send  us  its  light  and  heat."  Animals 
said,  "  We  will  keep  just  enough  energy  to  be  safe  to 
live  on  for  a  short  time,  but  the  rest  we  will  spend  in 
free  movement  as  fast  as  it  comes  to  us."  So  it  hap- 
pened, and  the  story  ends,  as  all  fairy  stories  should, 


THE    PARTING    OF    THE    WAYS 


30  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

with  "  they  Hved  happy  ever  after."  But  the  plants  had 
chosen  to  stay  still,  and  they  have  stayed  still  to  this 
day,  each  one  living  in  its  appointed  place  for  its  life- 
time. The  animals  had  chosen  to  spend  their  energy 
in  movement,  and  they  have  moved  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  all  over  the  earth.  That  is  one  difference, 
the  big  difference,  between  the  Animal  Kingdom  and 
the  Vegetable  Kingdom. 

The  plants,  which  are  tied  to  one  place,  reach  out 
into  the  air  around  them  and  down  into  the  earth  be- 
neath them  to  get  the  ingredients  for  their  food.  With 
the  sun-heat  and  the  sun-light  they  cook  it  in  their 
tiny  mixing  pots,  the  cells.  When  it  is  first  cooked  it 
has  a  great  deal  of  water  mixed  in  with  it,  and  water 
has  no  fuel  value.  But  then  the  plants  begin  to  provide 
for  their  seed  children,  for  whom  they  are  saving  this 
"money"  that  the  sun  lavishes  on  them.  They  begin 
to  pack  away  this  wealth  of  energy  for  them,  and 
wherever  you  and  I  can  find  it  packed  away,  there  we 
shall  find  a  food  with  heat  in  it,  a  food  of  good  fuel 
value. 

The  potato  is  one  such  food.  It  is  a  storeroom  with 
plenty  of  starch  put  away  for  the  sprouts  (which  are 
to  come  from  the  eyes  of  the  potato)  to  live  on  until 
they  are  big  enough  to  get  energy  from  the  sun  for 
themselves.  All  kinds  of  seeds  and  bulbs  which 
are  good  to  eat  have  high  fuel  value,  for  around  the 
germ  of  life  the  plant  always  packs  a  good  supply  of 
starch.    That  is  why  beans  and  peas,  grains,  cereals 


FOOD  AS  FUEL  3 1 

(wheat,  barley,  rye,  oats,  rice,  and  all  their  products 
in  bread,  crackers,  and  breakfast  foods),  are  good 
fuel  foods.  They  are  rich  in  starch,  which  is  the 
product  into  which  the  sun-energy  has  transformed 
their  ingredients. 

Sugars  are  another  kind  of  product  into  which  sun- 
energy  cooks  the  ingredients  which  plants  draw  from 
the  air  and  from  the  earth.  We  get  our  cane  sugar 
from  the  watery  juice  of  the  sugar  cane.  From  this  we 
drive  out  the  water  until  we  have  the  only  perfect  un- 
mixed fuel  food,  our  white  sugar.  Test  sugar  by  the 
food  thermometer  and  it  will  get  a  very  high  mark. 
Fruit-plants  store  energy  in  the  sugar  which  is  packed 
around  the  seed  of  the  fruit.  If  fruits  did  not  have  so 
much  water  in  them  they  would  rank  higher  as  fuel 
foods.  Dried  fruits,  such  as  prunes,  figs,  and  raisins, 
go  high  on  the  list  for  their  sugar  fuel. 

Stored  plant-food  is  not  the  only  human  fuel.  It  is 
the  most  abundant  and  the  least  expensive,  but  except 
in  the  case  of  our  prepared  table  sugar  it  is  not  the 
most  concentrated  fuel.  "  Fats  are  fuel  for  fighters," 
said  the  government  war  poster  which  was  displayed 
all  over  the  country  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  191 7. 
We  get  our  fats  from  animal  foods  —  bacon,  meat, 
cheese,  cream,  milk,  butter,  and  lard  —  and  from  a  few 
vegetable  foods  —  olive  oil,  coconut  oil,  corn  oils,  and 
cottonseed  oils.  Animals  eat  plants  and  get  the  fuel- 
energy  which  is  stored  in  this  food.  Then  they,  in 
their  turn,  store  it.    You  remember  that  they  chose  to 


32  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

spend  most  of  the  energy  the  sun  gave  them  in  move- 
ment, but  to  save  some  as  a  reserve.  This  reserve  they 
store  in  fats  and  oils.  Weight  for  weight,  fats  have 
more  than  twice  as  much  fuel  value  as  sugars  and 
starches.  That  was  why  Uncle  Sam  wanted  fats  for 
his  "  fighters."  Fats  took  less  than  half  the  room  that 
the  other  fuel  foods  would  have  taken  and  space  was 
precious  on  government  ships. 

The  way  to  recognize  a  fuel  food  when  you  have  no 
list  at  hand  is  to  think  whether  before  you  bought  it 
as  a  food  it  was  stored  by  its  plant  or  animal  as  a 
reserve.  If  it  was,  you  will  get  the  benefit  of  the 
energy  stored  in  it.  When  you  eat  honey  you  are  eat- 
ing the  sugar  which  the  bees  put  away  in  the  comb  as 
we  might  put  money  in  the  bank.  Because  they  store 
it  so  fast  they  can  spare  some  of  it  for  us  and  still  be 
well  provided  for  winter. 

The  way  to  buy  fuel  food  is  to  get  some  of  the  less 
expensive  energy-foods,  such  as  potatoes  and  cereals 
and  milk,  and  some  of  the  more  expensive,  such  as 
meats  and  fats.  Always  when  you  eat  bread  and  butter 
you  are  laying  in  "  coal "  for  your  "  furnaces." 

The  way  to  keep  your  furnaces  from  getting  choked 
is  to  see  that  you  do  not  eat  too  much  fuel  food,  which 
would  be  almost  as  bad  as  too  little.  The  danger  of 
too  much  sugar  or  too  much  candy  is  that  if  it  is  piled 
on  foods  or  shoveled  in  after  foods  which  are  already 
rich  in  fuel,  it  may  so  choke  the  furnaces  as  to  keep 
them  from  burning  well.    To  overload  a  furnace  so 


FOOD  AS  FUEL 


33 


that  it  cannot  burn  well  is  to  waste  fuel  and  decrease 
the  resulting  heat-energy  which  a  reasonable  supply 
of  fuel  would  give. 


QUESTIONS 

How  many  calories  of  heat  do  you  use  in  a  day  ? 
What  is  the  fuel  which  gives  this  heat  ? 
How  does  Nature  put  heat-energy  into  food  ? 
What  do  plants  do  with  their  energy  ? 
What  do  animals  do  with  their  energy  ? 

Where   shall  we   find   stored  energy-food   in   plants?     Where  in 
animals  ? 

How  shall  we  recognize  fuel  food  ? 

How  shall  we  buy  fuel  food  ? 

Why  should  we  be  careful  not  to  eat  too  much  fuel  food  ? 


.^■- 


FATS 

Eggs  Oil  Lard  Cream  Peanuts 

Nuts        Oleomargarine        Butter        Cheese 

These  foods,  grouped  in  the  picture  at  the  top 
of  the  opposite  page,  are  rich  in  fat,  as  are  also 
bacon,  fat  meat,  chocolate,  and  many  cooked  foods. 
As  bread  is  spread  with  butter,  many  foods  are 
cooked  with  fat  to  make  them  more  appetizing. 

SUGARS 

Sirup  Apples  Sugar  Oranges 

Molasses         Banana         Honey         Prunes        Raisins 

A  large  orange  may  contain  two  tablespoonfuls 
of  sugar.  Look  at  the  foods  grouped  in  the  pic- 
ture and  see  how  many  sources  of  sweets  there 
are  in  our  diet.  Fresh  fruits  and  dried  fruits 
contain  a  generous  amount  of  sugar  combined 
with   other   substances  which   make   for   health. 

STARCHES 

Bread  Potatoes  Macaroni 

Oatmeal  Rice  Graham  Flour 

Hominy     Corn  Meal    White  Flour  Shredded  Wheat 

Bread  and  the  many  other  cereal  foods  sug- 
gested by  the  contents  of  these  plates  make  up 
an  important  part  of  our  food.  They  give  bulk; 
they  supply  fuel ;  they  are  easy  to  obtain  and  not 
expensive;    they  are  plain  foods  without    much 

flavor.    We  can  eat  them  without  tiring  of  them. 

_ 

FUEL    foods 


"&-*-^1 


f  ]       ^^ 


;^  :,<.-#*»! 


I 


Jb 


4k 


FUEL    FOODS 


CHAPTER  VI 

OUR  DAILY  BREAD 

When  in  the  prayer  we  use  the  words  "  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread,"  we  are  asking  for  just  what  we 
need  and  all  we  can  take.  Man  lives  on  a  daily-ration 
plan.  Our  bodies  are  so  built  that  they  can  take  care 
of  and  use  during  one  day  the  food  for  that  day.  This 
amount  they  can  handle  well ;  from  it  they  can  get 
good  results.  More  than  a  day's  ration  taken  in  a 
day  overcrowds  our  bodies.  They  can  store  a  little, 
but  the  rest  goes  to  waste. 

Man's  life  must  be  run  on  the  daily-ration  plan 
because  he  is  so  free  in  spending  his  energy  in  move- 
ment and  activity.  Physically  he  is  at  the  head  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom,  and  animals  belong  to  the  adven- 
turous group  which  chose  to  spend  energy  rather  than 
to  store  it.  It  is  a  glorious  group !  Every  one  of  us 
would  make  the  same  choice  if  we  had  to  make  it 
to-day.  The  need  of  providing  three  good  meals  a  day 
is  a  small  price  to  pay  for  the  freedom  of  movement 
which  we  enjoy.  Man  does  not  even  store  up  enough 
energy  to  take  a  long  winter  sleep,  as  some  of  the 
animals  do.  He  is  willing  to  put  food  into  his  "bank 
account "  every  day  if  by  so  doing  he  may  be  able  to 
draw  on  that  account  freely. 

36 


OUR  DAILY  BREAD  37 

We  have  seen  how  closely  the  fuel  intake  and  the 
energy  output  balance.  They  do  not  balance  exactly. 
Prudently  taking  thought  for  the  morrow,  the  Body 
Self  does  try  to  store  up  a  tiny  reserve  which  shows 
itself  to  us  in  the  form  of  extra  weight  and  bulk.  We 
differ  in  the  amount  of  reserve  stored  in  our  bodies. 
A  little  fat  is  a  good  thing.  It  allows  us  to  draw  on 
the  body  bank  in  sudden  emergencies  without  danger 
to  our  health.  The  body  must  have  food  to  keep  itself 
going.  If  for  some  reason  we  do  not  give  it  this  food, 
it  will  turn  cannibal  and  eat  itself,  burning  itself  up  to 
keep  the  fires  going.  Sometimes  a  man  tries  to  see 
how  long  he  can  go  without  food.  He  may  be  able  to 
fast  forty  days,  but  to  fast  for  that  length  of  time  he 
must  give  up  the  privilege  of  moving  about  freely 
and  using  up  his  energy.  He  must  also  be  willing  to 
come  out  at  the  end  of  the  time  with  a  poor,  weakened 
body,  for  in  denying  it  food  he  has  forced  his  body  to 
live  on  itself.  Only  on  the  daily-ration  plan  can  we 
enjoy  our  usual  active  lives. 

On  the  daily- ration  plan  a  man  needs  foods  which 
fall  into  two  groups,  —  fuel  foods,  of  which  we  have 
been  speaking,  and  life  foods,  of  which  we  are  going 
to  speak.  Fuel  foods  he  needs  because  his  body  is  a 
machine,  taking  in  fuel  and  giving  out  energy.  Life 
foods  he  needs  because  his  body  is  a  living  machine. 

All  the  fuel  in  the  world  will  do  no  good  if  the 
furnace  or  engine  is  out  of  order  or  unequal  to  the 
demands  on  it.    If  the  body  were  only  a  machine,  and 


38  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

not  a  living  machine,  you  would  never  have  grown 
an  inch  beyond  the  size  you  were  as  a  baby  in  your 
mother's  arms.  You  could  not  get  much  energy  out 
of  a  machine  of  that  size.  But  you  would  not  have 
lived  very  long,  or  if  you  had  lived  you  would  have 
spent  much  of  your  time  in  some  sort  of  repair  shop. 
In  Chapter  IV  you  read  about  the  heat-energy  the 
body  had  to  produce  daily.  The  wear  and  tear  on  the 
parts  of  a  machine  working  at  such  a  tremendous  rate 
is  more  than  iron  or  steel  could  ever  stand.  Your  body 
can  stand  it  because  it  is  a  living  machine.  Because 
your  body  is  alive,  it  can  build  itself,  so  that  you  grow 
from  a  baby  to  a  full-sized  man  or  woman.  Because  it 
is  alive,  it  is  its  own  repair  shop.  It  can  renew  itself 
when  parts  wear  out,  as  they  constantly  do.  It  can 
repair  itself  when  parts  need  repair.  It  can  oil  itself 
and  keep  itself  running  smoothly,  so  that  all  the  parts 
work  silently  and  well  together,  without  creaking  or 
squeaking  or  rubbing  as  the  parts  of  an  engine  w^ould 
if  they  were  not  oiled.  But  like  any  other  builder,  it 
cannot  build  unless  it  has  something  to  build  with. 
It  must  have  materials.  It -must  have  what  we  are 
choosing  to  call  "life  foods."  We  might  almost  have 
called  them  "  body  foods,"  for  they  are  the  foods  out  of 
which  the  body  builds  and  rebuilds  itself.  They  are 
the  foods  which  do  not  burn  up  in  the  body,  but  which 
stay  and  finally  become  part  of  the  body  itself. 

When  Nature  is  preparing  foods  she  does  not  put 
them  up  in  neat  packages,  as  breakfast  foods  are  put 


40  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

up,  sealing  them  and  labeling  them  "Fuel  Food," 
"Life  Food  No.  i,"  "Life  Food  No.  2,"  etc.  Nature  is 
not  running  a  grocery  store  or  even  a  medicine  counter. 
She  is  running  a  food  shop,  and  like  a  good  cook  she 
mixes  all  the  needed  kinds  of  material  into  appetizing 
dishes.  Into  some  she  puts  more  fuel  foods :  that  is  when 
food  is  being  stored  away  by  the  plant  or  animal.  Into 
others  she  puts  more  life  foods :  that  is  in  the  parts 
of  plants  or  animals  where  there  is  the  most  life  and 
growth.  The  way  to  be  sure  to  get  a  good  daily  ration 
of  both  fuel  foods  and  life  foods  is  to  eat  a  good  varied 
diet.  Some  dishes  will  furnish  more  of  one  kind  and 
others  more  of  another;  all  together,  if  the  meals  are 
well  planned,  they  will  give  to  the  body  not  only  what 
will  supply  energy  but  what  will  also  keep  the  machine 
at  its  best. 

Preparing  foods  for  eating  is  a  matter  of  putting  dif- 
ferent elements  together.  Eating  foods  is  a  matter  of 
taking  them  apart.  Nature  and  man  rhix  them.  The 
minute  they  get  inside  the  mouth  the  taking  apart 
process  begins.  In  the  mouth  the  food  is  turned,  as  far 
as  possible,  into  a  liquid.  Even  here  there  is  a  little 
agent  that  is  looking  out  for  a  special  kind  of  food. 
This  food  it  takes  apart,  splitting  it  up  into  less  com- 
plex elements.  In  the  stomach  and  all  through  the 
digestive  tract  there  are  more  agents,  each  looking  for 
its  own  kinds  of  food.  They  are  stationed  at  intervals, 
like  watchmen,  so  that  if  any  life  food  gets  by  one 
which  ought  to  split  it  up,  it  will  have  to  pass  another 


OUR  DAILY  BREAD  4 1 

and  still  another.  The  end  and  aim  of  all  this  splitting 
apart  of  foods  is  that  they  shall  go  to  the  cells  in  a 
form  in  which  they  can  be  used.  A  tiny  cell  could  not 
use  the  mixture  of  fuel  and  life  foods  in  a  piece  of 
bread  as  we  take  it  into  the  mouth.  When  these  foods 
have  been  split  up  into  the  simple  parts  or  groups,  the 
resulting  liquid  can  be  taken  by  the  cell  and  burned  as 
fuel  or  used  as  building  material. 

Just  as  a  cook  makes  a  great  many  dishes  out  of  a 
few  things  like  flour  and  eggs  and  butter,  so  Nature 
makes  everything  in  the  world  out  of  a  very  few 
elements.  For  living  plants  and  animals  she  has  four 
main  elements  of  which  she  uses  considerable  portions, 
and  a  dozen  or  more  other  elements  of  which  she  uses 
a  bit  here  and  there.  When  each  food  has  been  split  up 
in  the  digestive  tract,  it  has  furnished  the  amount  of 
each  element  that  was  in  it.  What  the  body  needs  for 
fuel  it  will  burn.  It  will  burn  more  than  is  desirable 
of  the  incoming  life  foods  if  it  is  running  short  of  fuel. 
If  there  is  a  little  extra  fuel  it  may  store  part  of  it. 
What  it  needs  of  building  materials  it  will  either  use 
at  once  or  dispose  of  as  waste.  Fuel  materials  it  can 
store ;  most  of  the  life  foods  cannot  be  stored  for  more 
than  a  single  day.  They  must  be  new  every  morning 
and  fresh  every  evening. 

As  fuel  foods  are  heavy  and  bulky  to  carry  around 
with  us,  we  shall  be  more  comfortable  if  we  eat  of  fuel 
foods  only  about  the  daily  ration  of  the  body.  (There- 
fore, not  too  many  sweets !)    As  life  foods  are  very 


42  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

expensive,  and  it  takes  a  certain  amount  of  energy  for 
the  body  to  get  any  excess  of  them  out  of  the  system 
after  we  have  put  them  in,  it  will  pay  us  to  find  out 
just  about  what  our  daily  ration  is  and  neither  over-eat 
nor  under-eat.  (Certainly,  not  too  much  meat !)  Then 
and  then  only  shall  we  be  running  our  food  business 
well  on  the  daily-ration  plan  which  is  marked  out  for 
us  by  Nature. 

QUESTIONS 

What  in  man's  way  of  living  puts  him  on  the  daily-ration  plan  ? 
If  you  were  asked  to  choose  to-day,  would  you  choose  to  pay  this 
price  for  your  freedom  ? 

What  can  the  body  do  for  itself  because  it  is  a  living  machine  ? 

What  kinds  of  food  must  it  have  to  keep  in  running  order  ? 

Why  should  we  eat  a  varied  and  balanced  diet  ? 

What  happens  to  our  food  as  soon  as  we  have  eaten  it  ? 

Why  should  we  not  eat  too  much  candy  ? 

Why  should  we  avoid  too  much  meat  ? 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  MAGIC  TOUCH 

If,  instead  of  mixing  and  baking  a  cake,  your  mothers 
put  out  on  the  table  exactly  the  ingredients  which  go 
to  the  making  of  that  cake,  you  would  not  want  to  eat 
them.  Yet  there  would  be  just  as  much  food  value  in 
the  cup  of  flour  and  the  eggs  and  the  milk  and  butter 
and  other  ingredients  as  there  will  be  in  the  cake 
when  it  is  made. 

If  Nature  spread  out  before  you  the  elements  of 
which  she  makes  foods,  —  carbon,  oxygen,  nitrogen, 
and  hydrogen,  iron,  phosphorus,  sulphur,  and  the 
rest,  —  they  would  not  do  you  any  good  so  far  as 
eating  is  concerned.  Yet  they  would  all  be  there,  as 
all  the  materials  for  the  cake  were  on  the  table  before 
you.  Plants  could  take  them  and  eat  them.  That  is 
what  plants  can  do  that  animals  cannot  do.  They  reach 
out  in  the  air  for  some  elements  and  down  into  the 
ground  for  others,  and  finding  them  in  combinations 
take  them  and  make  use  of  them. 

We  have  seen  how  heat  is  as  necessary  for  Nature's 
foods  as  for  the  dishes  we  prepare  from  them  for  the 
table ;  but  even  cooking  is  not  all  that  is  needed  to 
turn  elements  —  gases  and  minerals  —  into  the  prod- 
ucts we  eat  as  foods.   They  must  receive  the  magic 

43 


44  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

touch  of  life.  Till  they  have  had  that  they  are  common 
elements ;  when  they  have  had  it  they  are  fit  foods  for 
a  living  body.  Everything  we  eat  (excepting  always 
the  water  we  drink)  has  passed  once,  twice,  sometimes 
thrice  under  this  magic  touch. 

Wise  men  have  searched  in  vain  for  that  within  a 
living  body  which  gives  it  its  life.  When  I  was  a  child 
I  had  for  a  plaything  a  Japanese  wooden  egg  which 
came  apart  in  the  middle.  When  the  colorless  outer 
shell  was  opened,  there  lay  inside  it  a  smaller  egg  gayly 
striped  in  reds  and  blues.  That  too  would  open.  In- 
side it  was  another,  and  another,  and  still  another,  until 
within  the  tenth  shell  there  lay  a  tiny  egg  that  would 
not  open.  Searching  within  a  living  body  for  that 
which  keeps  it  alive  is  very  much  like  opening  my 
play-nest  of  eggs.  We  may  strip  off  one  layer  after 
another,  peering  intently  into  each  to  find  the  Hfe  in  it. 
Each  time  there  is  a  smaller  living  body  within.  Finally 
we  come  to  the  last,  the  tiniest  of  all.  This  is  a  living  cell 
filled  with  a  thick  liquid.  Here  we  are  halted.  We  may 
look  at  this  cell  with  our  strong  glasses ;  we  may  test 
it  to  see  what  it  is  made  of;  but  we  cannot  find  out 
how  it  differs  from  the  cell  which  we  could  put  together 
from  the  same  materials.  Only  we  know  that  in  some 
way  it  has  received  the  magic  touch  of  life,  which  has 
turned  it  from  a  mixture  of  gases  and  minerals  into 
a  living  cell. 

This  much  we  do  find  in  our  search  for  life,  that 
wherever  life  is,  whether  in  plant  or  animal,  there  is  to 


THE  MAGIC  TOUCH  45 

be  found  the  same  kind  of  fluid.  This  fluid  is  evidently 
Nature's  life  mixture.  It  is  this  fluid  that  receives  the 
magic  touch.  When  we  find  it  we  are  next  to  life. 
Since  the  body  is  made  up  of  cells  full  of  this  fluid, 
and  the  body  is  rebuilding  itself,  the  best  we  can  do 
in  the  way  of  supplying  it  with  life  foods  is  to  give 
it  foods  which  have  a  gre^t  deal  of  this  life-stuff. 
All  foods  which  have  been  alive  have  a  little  of  this 
mixture.  The  nearer  we  come  to  the  living  part 
of  a  plant  or  animal,  the  richer  the  food  is  in  this 
life-stuff. 

There  is  no  need  for  you  to  learn  the  lists  of  these 
life  foods.  It  will  be  time  enough  for  that  when  you 
are  studying  physiology,  which  tells  you  more  about 
how  the  body  works,  or  domestic  science,  which  tells 
you  about  the  foods  you  are  cooking  and  what  they  do. 
Here  we  will  group  the  life  foods  for  you,  so  that  you 
will  know  what  they  are  when  you  see  them  referred 
to  in  food  lists  and  in  other  books. 

Meat  and  fish  and  living  parts  of  vegetables  we  eat 
chiefly  for  the  mixture  of  chemicals  which  make  up 
that  thick  fluid  we  have  just  spoken  of,  which  is  always 
found  next  to  life.  All  tissue  that  has  been  very  much 
alive  has  it.  Every  seed  has  a  tiny  layer  or  shell  of  it, 
like  the  tgg  of  the  play-nest  which  was  next  to  the  in- 
nermost egg,  that  would  not  open.  This,  which  is  the 
chief  class  of  life  foods,  is  called  the  protein  group  of 
foods.  In  this  class  are  placed  all  the  parts  of  the  food 
that  go  to  make  up  this  actual  life-stuff. 


46  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

When  I  tell  you  where  the  word  protein  came 
from,  you  will  see  why  these  foods  are  called  by  this 
name.  Greek  and  Latin  are  the  languages  of  science. 
That  is  because  they  are  the  old  languages,  which 
the  scientist,  whether  he  speaks  English  or  French  or 
German  or  Italian  or  Swedish  or  any  other  modern 
language,  knows.  So  that  is  where  we  get  our  science 
names.  Calorimeter  came  from  the  Latin  word  for 
heat,  you  remember,  as  thermometer  came  from  the 
Greek  word  for  heat.  Protos  is  the  Greek  word  for 
"  first."  So  the  fluid  that  comes  next  to  life  itself  the 
scientist  called  protoplasm,  or  "  first  form,"  and  the 
group  of  chemicals  which  together  make  up  that  pro- 
toplasm he  named  proteins,  or  "  first  things."  When 
you  hear  people  talking  about  "  proteins,"  or  about 
how  much  "  protein  "  a  food  has  in  it,  you  will  re- 
member that  all  they  mean  is  "first  foods," — foods 
which  come  right  next  to  life,  made  up  of  that  stuff 
to  which  Nature  gives  the  magic  touch  of  life. 

Proteins  are  not  all  alike.  Nature  does  not  make 
all  her  living  creation  on  one  pattern  or  by  one  recipe. 
"  All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh,"  reads  a  verse  in  the 
Bible ;  "  but  there  is  one  kind  of  flesh  of  men,  another 
of  beasts,  another  of  fishes,  and  another  of  birds."  The 
list  might  go  on  indefinitely,  with  the  flesh  of  green 
leaves,  and  of  plant  seeds,  and  of  milk,  and  of  eggs, 
and  so  forth.  All  these  proteins  are  good  for  us;  all 
do  some  special  work  in  our  bodies.  The  way  to  get 
enough  of  protein,  and  enough  of  all  the  proteins  you 


THE  MAGIC  TOUCH 


47 


need,  is  to  eat  a  good  variety  of  meat  and  fish  and 
vegetables,  with  milk  and  eggs. 

Because  meat  has  been  so  lately  living  flesh,  people 
used  to  think  that  to  get  protein  into  our  bodies  we  must 
eat  a  great  deal  of  meat.   Now  they  know  that  there  is 


THE    DAIRY    COW 
The  best  food  producer  in  the  world 

protein  in  all  life  tissues.  Milk  must  have  a  great  deal 
of  it,  for  from  the  mother's  milk  the  calf  must  get  its 
life-building  food  to  make  its  body  machine  grow  and 
to  renew  and  repair  its  tissues.  The  cow  eats  a  great 
deal  of  plant  life,  every  living  tissue  of  which  has  pro- 
teins. These  her  body  works  over  and  gives  out  in  milk, 
which  is  therefore  a  good  life  food.    Eggs  must  have  a 


48 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


great  deal  of  it,  else  how  could  the  tiny  bit  of  life  in 
the  center  of  the  egg  grow  and  become  a  little  chick  ? 
Eggs  have  fuel  food  stored  in  them,  too,  else  how  could 
the  growing  chick  have  energy  to  break  its  way  out  of 
the  shell  ?  Milk  and  eggs  are  the  best  all-round  foods, 
because  in  them  are  stored  all  that  the  young  animal 
needs  for  the  first  few  days  or  weeks  of  its  life.  When 
we  eat  them  we  are  getting  the  benefit  of  carefully 

prepared  life  foods. 

Two  other  life  foods 
have  been  lately  recog- 
nized by  the  scientists 
which  they  do  not  even 
know  enough  about  to 
name,  except  to  call 
them  "  life  foods "  or 
vitamines^  from  the 
Latin  word  vka,  "life." 
They  too  come  in  foods  which  have  been  actively  alive 
—  in  the  green  leaves  of  vegetables,  in  milk,  in  butter, 
in  the  fat  of  living  organs  of  animals,  in  fruits,  and  in 
meats.  They  are  absent  from  the  stored  products  of 
plant  life,  the  stored  fats,  the  closely  packed  sugars, 
the  starch  supplies  of  the  cereals  and  grains.  Without 
them  our  bodies  do  not  grow  or  work  properly. 

Then  there  are  the  minerals.  It  does  not  occur  to 
you  when  you  drink  milk  that  you  are  drinking  calcium, 
or  lime.  Yet  you  are  doing  so,  and  that  lime,  like  a 
good  many  other  minerals  you  take  in  your  food,  is 


THE  MAGIC  TOUCH  49 

very  necessary  for  your  living  body  machine.  The  min- 
eral parts  of  your  food  —  and  all  healthy  diets  must 
have  them  —  act  in  a  hundred  ways  to  keep  the  body 
machine  working  smoothly,  as  grease  and  oil  lubri- 
cate the  parts  of  a  machine,  and  also  to  build  up  living 
tissue.  One  mineral  helps  to  build  teeth.  Every  living 
cell  must  have  certain  of  these  minerals,  such  as  phos- 
phorus. So  we  may  put  them  in  the  group  of  life 
foods,  or  body  foods,  which  are  needed  because  the 
body  is  a  living  machine. 

As  you  learned  to  know  fuel  foods  as  foods  which 
the  plant  or  animal  laid  by  as  a  reserve  store,  so  you 
will  know  proteins  and  vitamines  and  minerals  as  the 
groups  which  are  found  in  the  most  active  and  living 
parts  of  plants  and  animals.  Knowing  this,  you  know 
the  main  facts  about  the  kinds  of  foods  needed  for  your 
body.  Without  a  cook-book  or  a  food-book  or  a  diet-list 
you  can  go  straight  to  Nature's  storehouse  and  choose 
for  yourself  wisely  and  well  from  the  abundance  of 
plant  and  animal  foods  which  she  has  provided  for  you. 

QUESTIONS 

What  can  plants  do  in  getting  food  that  animals  cannot  ? 
What  must  happen  to  elements  before  animals  can  take  them  as 
food  ? 

What  do  we  always  find  next  to  life  ? 

What  are  proteins  ? 

How  are  milk  and  eggs  good  foods  ? 

What  two  other  kinds  of  life  foods  besides  proteins  do  we  need  ? 


PROTEINS 

Cheese       Peas      Milk      Beans      Peanuts       Dried  Beans 
Meat      Fish      Eggs 

The  foods  in  this  group,  shown  in  the  picture 
at  the  top  of  the  opposite  page,  are  rich  in  the 
different  kinds  of  protein  needed  for  body  build- 
ing. Notice  that  with  the  animal  foods  are  placed 
peas,  beans,  and  nuts,  furnishing  vegetable  proteins. 

VITAMINES 

Milk        Spinach        Cauliflower 
Eggs        Butter        Cabbage        Lettuce 

Milk,  eggs,  butter,  and  green  vegetables  are 
called  by  Dr.  McCollum  "  protective  foods "  be- 
cause if  we  eat  them  in  reasonable  quantity  we 
get  the  needful  amount  of  certain  mysterious  sub- 
stances called  "vitamines."  Animals  denied  pro- 
tective foods  failed  to  grow  and  developed  disease. 

MINERALS  AND  WATER 

Milk      Spinach      Berries      Apples      Cabbage      Lettuce 

Eggs  Beets  Carrots  Cucumber  Potatoes 

Whole  Wheat       Celery 

Our  bodies  need  water,  which  fruits  and  vege- 
tables supply  in  good  measure.  They  need  mineral 
matter,  contained  in  vegetables,  milk,  eggs,  and 
in  bread  made  from  other  than  white  flour.  They 
need  a  good  bulk  of  food  upon  which  to  work, 
and  are  provided  with  it  by  vegetables  and  fruits. 

50  ' 

life  foods 


ii« 


51 


LIFE    FOODS 


IN  BUSINESS 

To  run  the  body  part  of  the  Food  Business  well,  we  must 

Remember 

That  the  body  is  a  machine, 

taking  in  food  as  fuel, 

burning  it  as  it  meets  oxygen  from  the  air, 

and  giving  out  energy ; 
That  as  we  require  from  the  body  energy, 

so  we  must  ^ve  the  body  fuel ; 
That  fuel  foods  are  the  foods  in  which  heat-energy 

has  been  stored  by  plants  and  animals  as  a 

reserve ; 
That  the  body  is  a  living  machine, 

building,    rebuilding,    repairing,   and    running 

itself; 
That  for  its  life  processes  it  must  have  life  foods, 

which    are    proteins,    vitamines,   and    mineral 

substances ; 
That  we  live  on  a  daily-ration  plan 

and  must  therefore  supply  the  body  a  diet  of 

fuel  foods  and  life  foods  daily. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LIKES  AND  DISLIKES 

To  get  the  best  out  of  our  food  we  must  enjoy  it. 
That  is  common  sense,  and  it  is  the  best  science  too. 

We  might  have  been  so  made  that  we  could  get  the 
proper  amount  of  nourishment  into  our  bodies  without 
ever  having  the  pleasure  of  tasting  it.  Instead,  we  who 
stand  at  the  top  of  the  scale  of  animal  life  have  been 
given  a  very  delicate  sense  of  taste.  Set  in  the  lining 
of  the  mouth  and  on  the  tongue  are  little  "taste  buds," 
tiny  cells  with  hairy  endings,  so  folded  in  flesh  that 
they  look  like  the  closed  buds  of  a  plant.  Through 
these  buds  is  brought  to  us  the  sense  of  the  taste  of 
the  food  we  eat.  Take  them  and  our  sense  of  smell 
away,  and  the  business  of  feeding  ourselves  would  be 
like  putting  food  into  the  cup  of  a  meat  chopper. 

Sometimes  people  have  diseases  of  the  mouth  and 
throat  so  that  they  cannot  take  food  in  the  usual  way. 
They  have  to  be  fed  through  a  tube,  which  pours  liquid 
food  into  the  stomach  without  its  ever  touching  the 
inside  of  the  mouth.  We  might  think  that  so  long  as 
the  necessary  food  reached  the  stomach  for  distribu- 
tion through  the  body,  one  way  of  getting  it  in  would 
do  as  well  as  another.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  way, 

53 


54  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

which  leaves  the  mouth  out  of  the  process  of  digestion, 
does  not  do  at  all.  People  may  live  through  an  illness 
with  this  method  of  feeding.  But  to  get  the  best  from 
their  food  they  must  take  it  through  the  mouth ;  they 
must  let  the  little  taste  buds  feel  it  and  send  a  mes- 
sage of  pleasure  up  along  the  nerves  to  the  brain,  with 
an  accompanying  signal  to  the  stomach  to  prepare 
for  it;  they  must  let  the  mouth  contribute  its  liquid 
saliva,  and  the  little  digestion  agents  in  the  mouth 
begin  to  tear  the  food  apart.  Then  by  the  time  the  food 
reaches  the  stomach,  the  stomach  is  ready  for  it,  ready 
to  make  the  most  of  it.  Putting  food  in  through  a 
tube  is  like  pushing  a  person  into  the  house  without 
ringing  the  doorbell  to  summon  the  persons  within  to 
receive  him.  He  may  get  in  and  he  may  stay  in,  but 
if  they  do  not  want  him  or  are  not  prepared  for  him, 
he  will  not  have  so  pleasant  or  so  satisfying  a  time  as 
he  would  otherwise. 

It  is  a  small  thing  the  Body  Self  asks  of  us,  that  we 
protect  and  instruct  it  by  this  sense  of  taste.  Taste  is 
ready  to  be  a  very  good  servant,  but  it  is  often  badly 
trained.  A  mistress  is  sometimes  judged  by  the  man- 
ners of  her  servants.  Anyone  who  goes  frequently 
into  the  homes  of  strangers  comes  to  have  a  distinct 
impression  of  the  lady  of  the  house  long  before,  sum- 
moned by  her  maid,  she  has  arrived  in  the  reception 
room  to  greet  the  newcomer.  Sometimes  a  maid  opens 
the  door  only  a  few  inches,  admitting  the  stranger  as 
if  only  under  protest;  sometimes  she  escorts  him  in 


LIKES  AND  DISLIKES  55 

and  disappears  in  search  of  her  mistress  without  taking 
his  name  or  showing  any  more  interest  in  his  arrival 
than  as  if  she  were  a  piece  of  machinery  set  to  open 
the  door  in  response  to  a  ring  at  the  bell. 

Nature  begins  the  training  of  our  servant,  taste ;  it 
is  for  us  to  continue  that  training.  We  find  taste  very 
convenient  and  necessary  as  the  watchdog  type  of 
servant,  opening  the  door  hesitatingly  to  suspicious- 
looking  or  suspicious-smelling  foods  which  may  con- 
tain poisons.  We  should  not  like  to  have  it  become  a 
careless  servant,  admitting  anyone  without  a  moment's 
thought  or  inquiry.  We  must  take  pains,  however,  to 
train  it  to  be  a  pleasant  and  welcoming  servant  for  all 
kinds  of  good  foods,  discriminating  carefully  between 
them  and  giving  to  each  an  individual  greeting. 

A  great  many  people  do  not  have  their  food  door 
opened  cheerfully.  They  grumble  over  their  food. 
They  eat  it  when  they  are  so  tired  that  nothing  would 
please  them.  They  bolt  it  down  so  fast  that  they  do 
not  stop  to  think  what  it  is  or  what  it  tastes  like. 
Then  they  blame  their  bodies  for  not  being  ready  or 
able  to  take  care  of  it  promptly  and  easily.  Really  the 
fault  is  all  their  own. 

Along  with  hunger,  which  is  the  call  of  the  body  for 
food  and  is  probably  connected  with  actual  contrac- 
tions of  the  stomach,  comes  appetite,  which  is  closely 
connected  with  taste  and  smell  and  the  pleasant 
remembrance  or  anticipation  of  food.  Hunger,  like 
thirst,  seems  to  be  general.    We  hunger  for  food  as 


56  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

we  thirst  for  water.  Appetite  is  more  discriminating, 
more  closely  related  to  our  thoughts  and  feelings. 
The  two  work  so  constantly  and  closely  together  that 
we  need  not  try  to  separate  them,  except  to  make  more 
emphatic  in  our  minds  the  importance  of  the  pleasure 
element  in  the  taking  of  food. 

There  has  long  been  a  remark  in  common  speech 
concerning  an  attractive  food,  "It  makes  my  mouth 
water."  This  remark  describes  an  important  physical 
fact.  The  sight  and  smell  of  food  for  which  we  fee^  a 
desire  does  make  the  mouth  water  and  the  saliva  flow. 
It  also  makes  the  stomach  "water,"  preparing,  as  we 
have  said,  at  the  signal  sent  by-  taste  or  smell,  for 
the  reception  of  the  food.  It  is  equally  true  that  any 
strong  feeling  of  distaste,  of  anger,  of  weariness,  of 
fear,  or  of  pain  stops  the  mouth  and  the  stomach  from 
"watering"  and  keeps  the  food  taken  into  the  body 
from  passing  in  proper  fashion  on  its  way.  The  Body 
Self  does  not  run  the  food  business  independently; 
it  is  very  dependent  on  you. 

A  dog,  the  pet  of  a  great  student  of  food,  had  what 
was  like  a  window  in  his  stomach,  so  that  the  flow  of 
the  digestion  fluids  could  be  watched.  When  he  was 
hungry  and  was  shown  food  that  he  liked,  the  juices 
would  begin  to  flow  at  once  in  his  stomach,  before  he 
had  taken  a  single  mouthful.  Once  a  cat  was  brought 
into  the  room.  The  dog  watched  it  with  great  excite- 
ment and  anger.  When  the  cat  was  taken  away, 
although  the  dog  went  back  to  the  food,  the  juices 


LIKES  AND  DISLIKES 


57 


did  not  begin  to  flow  again  for  some  time.  His  ex- 
citement and  anger  were  so  strong  that  they  had  ruled 
out  and  ruled  over  the  food  desires  which  would  make 
for  good  digestion. 

Again  and  again  it  has  been  proved  with  animals 
and  children  and  men  and  women  that  for  food  to  do 


A    CORDIAL    WELCOME 


us  the  most  good  we  must  enjoy  it.  It  is  not  enough 
to  provide  for  our  Body  Self  the  right  amount  of  fuel 
foods  and  life  foods ;  we  must  speak  a  good  word  for 
them  to  the  Body  Self,  welcoming  them  cordially  as 
they  come  to  us. 

There  are  two  ways  to  go  about  this  very  necessary 
matter  of  enjoying  our  food.    One  is  to  eat  what  we 


58  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

like ;  the  other  is  to  Uke  what  we  eat.  These  two 
statements  may  sound  as  if  they  were  one  and  the 
same  thing;  sometimes  they  are,  but  only  to  the 
person  who  has  a  well-trained  taste  servant.  The  body 
must  have  a  certain  amount  of  fuel  food ;  it  must  have 
a  good  variety  of  life  foods.  Suppose  the  taste  servant 
lets  in  gladly  only  a  few  kinds  of  food.  Suppose  a 
person  said :  "  I  know  that  to  have  my  food  do  me 
good  I  must  enjoy  it.  Therefore  I  am  going  to  oat 
what  I  like."  With  that  thought  he  might  go  to  a 
table  set  with  a  good  mixture  of  fuel  and  life  foods 
and  he  might  say,  "Now  which  of  these  foods  do  I 
like  ? "  If  he  had  a  well-trained  servant  in  his  tastes 
and  appetites,  he  would'  eat  a  little  of  everything  and 
his  body  needs  would  be  well  met.  If  he  picked  all  fuel 
foods  and  few  life  foods,  so  that  the  body  had  nothing 
to  build  with,  or  on  the  other  hand  all  life  foods,  so 
that  the  body  must  burn  them  instead  of  building 
with  them,  he  might  have  eaten  what  he  liked,  but  he 
would  have  been  a  very  poor  business  manager  for  his 
food  business.  He  would  be  abusing  his  Body  Self  be- 
cause he  had  never  taken  the  trouble  to  train  his  taste. 
Now  a  healthy  person  with  a  well-trained  taste  serv- 
ant comes  to  the  same  table.  He  may  know  a  good 
deal  about  fuel  foods  and  life  foods.  More  likely  he 
does  not.  He  knows  that  food  is  good  and  that  he  is 
hungry.  He  takes  a  portion  of  everything;  he  tastes 
it  with  interest ;  he  eats  it  with  enjoyment.  Ask  him 
if  he  likes  what  he  is  eating  and  he  will  assure  you 


LIKES  AND  DISLIKES  59 

that  he  does.  He  Hkes  it  because  it  is  good ;  he  Hkes 
it  also  because  he  intends  to  hke  it.  When  you  take 
food  or  exercise  or  anything  else  in  that  spirit,  it  does 
you  good.  Of  that  person  we  might  say,  in  the  famil- 
iar phrase,  "His  food  will  agree  with  him."  Perhaps 
we  might  better  turn  the  words  about  and  say,  "  He 
agrees  with  his  food ;  therefore  it  will  agree  with  him." 
Nature  starts  us  with  a  healthy  liking  for  the  foods 
which  our  bodies  need.  It  is  we  who  make  the  trouble, 
saying,  "I  don't  like  this,"  or  "I  never  tried  that;  I 
don't  think  I  should  like  it."  Only  a  person  who  likes 
almost  everything  can  safely  let  himself  eat  only  what 
he  likes.    He  has  a  well-trained  servant  in  his  tastes. 


QUESTIONS 

What  part  do  our  mouths  have  in  the  business  of  eating  ? 
In  what  spirit  should  we  have  our  food  door  opened  ? 
Why  must  we  enjoy  our  food  ? 
How  can  we  train  ourselves  to  enjoy  our  food  ? 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  WORLD  APPETITE 

Turkey,  carp,  and  carrots,  we  hear, 
Came  into  England  all  in  one  year. 

Here,  in  an  old  English  proverb,  we  have  history  writ- 
ten not  in  dates  of  kings  and  battles  but  in  terms  of 
food  and  drink.  It  is  a  very  sensible  and  democratic 
way  of  writing  history,  one  that  will  probably  gain  in 
favor  and  importance  in  the  years  to  come.  Certainly 
much  of  the  history  of  the  Great  War  through  which 
we  have  been  passing  might  be  written  in  terms  of 
food.  In  exactly  what  year  it  was  that  turkey  and 
carp  and  carrots  came  to  England  we  do  not  know, 
but  it  was  about  1520,  a  year  famous  in  the  period  of 
discovery  and  exploration. 

We  expect  to  find  in  our  stores  and  markets  food 
from  all  over  the  earth.  We  expect  to  sit  down  every- 
day to  a  world  table.  Only  when  war  upsets  the  ship- 
ping of  the  world's  food  products  do  we  stop  to  think 
where  each  article  of  food  on  our  tables  comes  from 
and  how  many  people  are  concerned  in  bringing  our 
sugar  from  the  West  Indies,  our  tea  from  China,  our 
fruits  from  the  southlands,  and  our  spices  from  the 

islands  of  the  sea.    In  the  olden  days,  when  sailing 

60 


A  WORLD  APPETITE 


6i 


vessels  were  venturing  out  on  the  first  long  voyages  of 

discovery,  kings  and  queens  waited  with  interest  to  see 

what  new  foods  their  captains  would  bring  home  to 

them.   The  turkey  of  the  proverb  had  been  brought  to 

England  from  Mexico.    It  is  a  fact  recorded  in  history 

that  turkey  was  eaten  in  France  for  the  first  time  at 

the  wedding  of  Charles  the 

Ninth  in  1571.     Carp  was 

a    fresh-water    fish    which 

some     Crusader     brought 

back  to  Europe  from  Asia, 

breeding  it  with  great  care 

in  the  ponds  of  his  castle 

grounds.    It  is  interesting 

that  the  necessities  of  war 

have  revived  the  eating  of 

carp.    Now  — four  hundred 

years  after  it  was  brought 

to  England  —  government 

publications      are      urging 

English-speaking     peoples 

to  eat  more  carp.    Carrots 

came   from   the   gardens   of    Holland,    and   a   better 

vegetable  could   not   have  been    brought. 

Sugar,  which  we  found  it  so  hard  to  do  without  in 
war  time,  came  to  England  only  in  Shakespeare's  day. 
It  was  brought  from  Venice  and  was  a  great  luxury. 
No  nation  or  generation  in  all  the  world's  history 
has  used  sugar  as  we  Americans  are  using  it  in  the 


62  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

twentieth  century.  People  had  to  get  their  sweets  out 
of  the  other  foods  where  Nature  has  stored  them. 

Only  in  our  own  time  has  a  world  table  been  set; 
only  in  our  time  has  it  been  interesting  to  cultivate  a 
world  appetite.  People  have  always  kept  their  bodies 
nourished  on  the  foods  that  lay  close  about  them. 
Nature  has  seen  to  it  that  every  man  who  lived  close 
to  the  soil  could  in  his  own  country  raise  the  necessary 
life  foods  and  fuel  foods.  The  Chinese  had  their  rice 
for  fuel,  and  the  Irish  their  potatoes.  Bread  and  fruits 
were  staple  articles  of  diet  almost  everywhere.  The 
Eskimo  gets  his  fat  from  whale  blubber,  the  southerner 
his  from  olive  oil.  Both  can  make  up  their  daily  ration 
of  2500  calories  for  body  needs.  For  variety  and  inter- 
est and  attractiveness  nothing  so  wonderful  as  our 
present  group  of  foods  brought  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  has  ever  been  known. 

A  world  appetite  is  one  qualification  for  a  good 
traveler.  If  you  went  to  dine  at  the  home  of  a  China- 
man and  he  offered  you  rice  from  his  own  rice  fields, 
it  would  not  be  polite  to  say,  "No,  I  thank  you."  A 
good  traveler  follows  in  eating,  as  in  other  customs  of 
living,  the  old  rule  "  When  in  Rome,  do  as  the  Romans 
do."  He  finds  it  worth  while  to  do  this  not  only  for 
politeness  but  also  for  his  own  comfort.  A  man  who 
could  eat  nothing  but  the  food  he  had  always  been 
accustomed  to  raise  on  his  own  farm  would  have  a 
sorry  time  of  it  if  he  went  on  a  trip  around  the  world 
and   inquired  everywhere  for  food  to  which  he  was 


A  WORLD  APPETITE  63 

accustomed.  Stefansson  is  able  to  live  beyond  the 
reach  of  relief  expeditions  in  the  far  North  because  he 
can  eat  the  food  which  the  tribes  dwelling  there  eat, 
and  can  live  as  they  live.  He  can  live  "off  the  country," 
as  Caesar's  armies  did. 

It  was  Stefansson's  willingness  to  eat  the  same 
kind  of  food  they  ate  which  made  some  of  the  most 
remote  tribes  which  he  visited  feel  safe  with  him. 
There  was  one  tribe  in  the  far,  far  North  which  had 
never  been  visited  by  a  white  man  and  knew  nothing 
of  our  world.  Toward  it  across  the  ice  plains  Stefansson 
and  his  two  companions  came,  to  be  looked  upon  at 
first  as  spirits  from  another  world,  not  as  flesh-and- 
blood  men.  As  the  news  of  the  coming  of  the  strangers 
spread  through  the  village,  men,  women,  and  children 
came  out  to  meet  them.  The  women  of  each  family, 
writes  Stefansson,^  "were  in  more  hurry  to  be  presented 
than  the  men,  for  they  must,  they  said,  go  right  back 
to  their  houses  to  cook  us  something  to  eat."  You 
have  often  seen  your  mothers  slip  away  as  quickly  to 
prepare  food  for  an  unexpected  guest  who  had  come 
a  long  journey.  The  men  of  the  village  set  about  pre- 
paring a  house  for  the  strangers,  but  before  it  was 
done  children  came  running  to  announce  that  their 
mothers  had  dinner  ready. 

Stefansson's  own  hostess  was  "  motherly,  kindly,  and 
hospitable,  like  all  her  countrywomen.  Her  first  ques- 
tions were  not  of  the  land  from  which  I  came,  but  of 

1  From  "  My  Life  with  the  Eskimo."    The  Macmillan  Company,  19 13. 


64  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

my  footgear.  Were  n't  my  feet  just  a  little  damp,  and 
might  she  not  pull  my  boots  off  for  me  and  dry  them 
over  the  lamp  ?  Would  I  not  put  on  a  pair  of  her  hus- 
band's dry  socks,  and  was  there  no  little  hole  in  my 
mittens  or  coat  that  she  could  mend  for  me  ?  She  had 
boiled  some  seal  meat  for  me,  but  she  had  not  boiled 
any  fat,  for  she  did  not  know  whether  I  preferred  the 
blubber  boiled  or  raw.  They  always  cut  it  in  small 
pieces  and  ate  it  raw  themselves;  but  the  pot  still 
hung  over  the  lamp,  and  anything  she  put  into  it 
would  be  cooked  in  a  moment.  When  I  told  her  that 
my  tastes  quite  coincided  with  theirs  —  as,  in  fact,  they 
did  —  she  was  delighted.  People  w^ere  much  alike, 
then,  after  all,  though  they  came  from  a  great  distance. 
She  would  accordingly  treat  me  exactly  as  if  I  were 
one  of  their  own  people  come  to  visit  them  from  afar." 

It  was  a  strange  moment  when  this  twentieth- 
century  explorer  met  a  woman  who  might  for  all  that 
she  knew  of  the  great  modern  world  have  been  living 
in  the  Stone  Age.  Its  difficulties  were  smoothed  away 
before  they  even  appeared  by  the  simple  sharing  of 
a  meal  together.  "  People  were  much  alike,  then,  after 
all,"  she  said  as  he  ate  her  food,  and  she  adopted 
this  strange  white  man  as  one  of  her  own  people. 

Some  of  us  would  not  have  met  the  test  as  well  as 
Stefansson  did.  We  would  not  have  been  so  ready  to 
enjoy  seal  meat  and  raw  blubber.  Our  tastes  would 
not  have  been  so  broad  as  his.  His  would  not  have 
been  so  broad  if  they  had  not  been  trained.    That  is 


A  WORLD  APPETITE 


65 


one  thing  that  we  all  should  do — train  our  tastes  so  that 
we  may  have  not  a  local,  narrow  range  of  likes  and 
dislikes  in  food  but  a  world  taste  and  a  world  appetite. 

Boy  Scouts,  Girl  Scouts,  Camp  Fire  Girls,  every 
group  of  boys  and  girls  getting  together  for  self- 
training,  go  through 
regular  drills  and 
tests  to  improve 
their  sight  and  hear- 
ing. They  train  their 
hands  so  that  their 
sense  of  touch  may 
be  more  keen.  By 
cold  baths  and  vig- 
orous exercise  they 
train  their  skin  to 
resist  cold.  Let  us 
begin  to  train  our 
tastes. 

First  make  a  list 
of  the  kinds  of  food 
you  eat  in  a  week, 

not  forgetting  to  count  all  the  seasoning  and  spices 
and  flavoring  in  the  different  dishes.  Then  study 
up  in  your  geography  and  ask  your  grocer,  your  market 
man,  and  your  fruit  dealer,  if  you  do  not  know,  where 
each  of  the  foods  comes  from.  See  how  many  coun- 
tries help  to  set  your  world  table ;  then  see  how  much 
of  a  world  appetite  you  have.    Explorers  have  had  to 


66  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

cultivate  world  appetites  because  they  were  going 
around  the  world.  You  will  find  it  very  much  worth 
while  to  cultivate  a  world  appetite,  because  the  foods 
of  the  world  are  coming  to  you. 

Then  when  you  travel,  your  tastes  will  be  already 
trained.  No  one  is  so  independent  at  home  or  abroad 
as  the  man  who  eats  everything  and  likes  everything. 
He  has  stretched  his  food  tether  to  encircle  the  globe. 

QUESTIONS 

How  can  it  be  said  that  we  sit  at  a  world  table  ? 

What  does  it  mean  to  have  a  world  appetite  ? 

From  what  countries  do  the  foods  on  your  table  come  ? 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  FIRST  STEP 

"To  dine,"  it  has  been  said,  "was  the  first  step  up 
on  the  highway  of  civiUzation."  This  first  step  man 
took  when  he  began  to  cook  his  food.  He  is  the  only 
living  creature  that  can  make  a  fire ;  so  he  is  the  only 
creature  that  can  practice  the  arts  of  cookery.  This  he 
has  always  done,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  There  is 
hardly  a  record  in  history  or  tradition  of  a  tribe  so 
savage  that  it  ate  all  its  food  raw.  The  myths  of 
all  nations,  as  soon  as  they  have  told  how  man  was 
created,  give  an  account  of  how  man  got  fire.  The 
witty  Frenchman  was  not  far  amiss  who  called  man 
a  "  cooking  animal." 

Fire  was  to  early  peoples  so  wonderful  that  it  is 
always  pictured  as  the  property  of  the  gods,  given  to 
man  by  them  as  a  reward  for  service  or,  more  often, 
stolen  or  snatched  from  them  by  man.  You  should 
re-read,  or  read  for  the  first  time  if  you  do  not  know 
it,  the  classic  Greek  myth  of  Prometheus,  the  friend  of 
mankind  who  suffered  untold  agony  that  man  might 
have  fire. 

The  Polynesians  have  a  story  which  traces  the  desire 
for  fire  directly  to  the  taste  for  cooked  food.  Maui,  so 
the  legend  runs,  was  a  guard  between  the  upper  world 

67 


68  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

where  mortals  lived  and  the  lower  world  where  dwelt 
the  gods.  Though  Maui  had  been  born  in  the  under- 
world, he  had  never  tasted  cooked  food.  When  his 
mother  came  to  visit  him  as  he  paced  back  and  forth 
between  the  two  worlds,  she  never  shared  the  food 
which  he  offered  her  but  ate  always  from  a  basket 
which  she  brought  with  her.  One  day,  while  she  slept, 
Maui  peeped  into  her  basket  and  tasted  a  bit  of  her 
food.  It  was  far  better  than  anything  he  had  ever 
eaten.  Maui  knew  that  the  dwellers  in  the  underworld 
prepared  their  food  with  fire,  which  neither  he  nor 
any  other  mortal  had  ever  been  permitted  to  see.  "  If 
fire  makes  food  as  good  as  this,"  said  Maui  to  himself, 
"  I  must  have  it."  So  one  day  he  followed  his  mother 
secretly  to  the  underworld,  and  after  many  adventures 
obtained  from  the  Fire  God  the  secret  of  making  a  fire. 
After  that  he  cooked  food  for  himself.  Nor  was  Maui 
selfish  with  this  wonderful  secret  which  he  had  obtained 
at  such  risk.  He  gave  of  his  cooked  food  to  mortals,  and 
finally  even  shared  with  them  his  wonderful  secret  of 
how  to  make  fires  over  which  to  cook  their  own  food. 
Cooking  is  the  preparation  of  food  by  applying  heat. 
This  heat  may  be  applied  in  several  ways.  The  sim- 
plest and  most  primitive  was  to  hold  the  food  directly 
over  a  fire.  We  still  cook  by  this  direct  exposure  when 
we  broil  meat  or  toast  bread.  Roasting  was  another 
method  of  cooking  with  heat  which  came  directly 
from  the  coals.  Although  we  speak  of  "roast  lamb" 
or  "  roast  beef,"  nowadays  we  almost  never  roast.  The 


THE  FIRST  STEP 


69 


name  remains  from  the  time  when  meat  was  really 
roasted,  the  time  when  it  was  cooked  out  of  doors  over 
huge  fires  or  turned  on  a  spit  before  the  open  fires  in 
the  deep  fireplaces  of  our  forefathers.   What  we  to-day 


A    NEW    ENGLAND    FIREPLACE 


call  "  roast  beef  "  is  really  "  baked  beef,"  —  beef  cooked 
by  dry  heat  in  an  oven.  Ancient  tribes  baked  both  in 
the  embers  under  their  fires,  as  we  bake  potatoes  in 
the  hot  ashes  of  a  camp  fire,  and  in  holes  in  the  ground 
lined  with  hot  stones.  They  would  wrap  the  food  in 
leaves  and  lay  it  on  the  stones,  closing  the  hole  at  the 
top  to  keep  the  heat  in.  We  are  following  this  ancient 


70  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

way  of  baking  when  we  heat  the  soapstones  of  a  fire- 
less  cooker  and  place  the  food  between  them. 

Toasting,  broiling,  roasting,  and  baking  are  all 
methods  of  cooking  in  a  dry  heat ;  water  or  any  other 
liquid  is  introduced  only  to  prevent  burning  and  to 
add  flavor,  as  in  the  case  of  basthig  (which  is  to  say 
moistening)  meat  which  is  being  baked.  Boilhig,  stew- 
ing,  and  steaming  make  use  of  the  heat  obtained  in  the 
boiling  of  some  liquid.  To  boil  is  to  subject  to  the 
action  of  heat  in  a  boiling  liquid ;  to  stew  is  to  boil 
slowly  or  to  cook  in  a  little  water  at  a  temperature 
below  boiling  point ;  to  steam  is  to  cook  in  the  steam 
which  comes  from  water  at  or  near  the  boiling  point. 
Indian  tribes  living  near  hot  springs  used  to  bring 
their  raw  food  and  cook  it  in  the  steam  that  rose  from 
the  ground  near  the  spring.  One  tribe  of  Indians  in 
our  own  country  were  called  Stone  Boilers,  because 
it  was  their  custom  to  fit  a  water-tight  skin  into  a  hole 
in  the  ground,  pour  water  into  this  skin,  put  in  the 
meat  to  be  cooked,  and  then  drop  in  red-hot  stones. 
The  heat  from  the  stones  would  start  the  water  boiling 
and  thus  cook  the  meat.  Sometimes  the  stomach  of 
the  animal  of  which  the  flesh  was  being  cooked  would 
be  used  to  hold  the  water,  for  the  stomach  is  a  natural 
pot  of  a  fairly  strong  kind. 

Cooking  in  fat,  which  we  Q2}\fryi7ig,  must  have  come 
later  than  these  other  methods  of  cooking,  for  it  re- 
quired the  use  of  a  pan  or  griddle  to  keep  the  fat  from 
dripping  into  the  fire  or  oozing  out  into  the  water. 


72 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Cooking  by  direct  exposure  to  heat  over  an  open 
fire  is  wasteful  because  the  heat  spreads  in  every  other 
direction  as  well  as  the  one  where  is  hung  or  laid  the 
food  to  be  cooked.  Most  of  our  cooking  is  done  to- 
day either  in  an  oven  or  in  a  pot  or  kettle,  in  some- 
thing that  receives  the  heat  and  holds  it. 

It  is  interesting  that  to-day  many  of  the  old  proc- 
esses of  cooking,  which  were  laid  aside  with  the  com- 
ing in  of  the  modern  cookstove,  are  being  revived. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  fireless  cooker,  which  will  hold 
the  heat  in  a  covered  kettle  and  let  the  mixture  within 
cook  for  hours  after  the  start  given  it  by  a  tew 
moments  of  heat  applied  from  the  stove.  Outdoor 
cooking  is  being  revived ;  boy  and  girl  campers  are 
making  use  of  ways  of  building  outdoor  ovens  and 
tiny  stone  fireplaces  which  the  Indians  of  five  hun- 
dred years  ago  would  recognize  at  once,  should  they 
return  from  their  Happy  Hunting  Grounds  to  the 
woods  and  plains  over  which  once  they  ranged. 

Outdoor  cooking,  in  your  own  backyard  if  the  fire 
laws  permit  or  on  the  camping  trips  of  your  family, 
your  group  of  Boy  or  Girl  Scouts  or  Camp  Fire  Girls, 
or  any  other  club,  is  not  only  good  fun ;  it  is  very 
much  worth  while.  It  is  good  to  be  independent.  It 
is  good  to  go  away  from  the  town  or  city,  from 
the  kitchen  with  its  cookstove  and  its  woodpile  or 
coal  hod  into  the  open  and  there  to  draw  on  the  store- 
house of  Nature  for  your  supplies.  It  is  good  to  match 
your  wits  against  the  conditions  of  wind  and  woods 


THE  FIRST  STEP  73 

and  weather,  your  muscles  against  the  difficulties  of  a 
scattered  supply  of  necessaries,  and  to  come  out  the 
victor,  with  a  palatable,  well-cooked  meal  to  your  credit. 
You  have  gained  in  the  effort  not  only  food  but  power. 
You  have  taken  a  part  in  the  romantic,  adventurous 
struggle  of  man  to  win  a  living  from  the  land  on 
which  he  finds  himself.  You  have  taken  with  the  first 
man  the  first  step  on  the  highway  of  upward  progress. 

QUESTIONS 

What  are  the  three  methods  of  cooking  by  direct  heat  ?  Describe 
each  of  them. 

What  is  baking  ? 

How  do  boiling,  stewing,  and  steaming  differ  from  these  other 
methods  ?  -^ 

What  name  do  we  give  to  cooking  in  fat  ? 

How  many  of  these  ways  of  cooking  have  you  practiced,  indoors 
or  out  ? 


^^ 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  MOMENT  OF  EATING 

If  we  did  not  enjoy  eating,  perhaps  we  should  not 
be  wiUing  to  take  so  much  trouble  to  keep  ourselves 
alive.  Nature  knew  how  that  would  be,  so  she  did 
everything  to  make  us  enjoy  the  actual  moment  of 
eating.  Man  has  responded  by  throwing  around  the 
moment  of  eating  not  only  ceremony  but  a  certain 
sacredness.  To  go  through  any  form  of  eating  to- 
gether has  been,  among  the  simplest  as  well  as  the 
most  cultured  peoples,  an  act  which  carried  with  it 
obligations  of  friendship.  The  wanderer  who  had 
shared  the  food  of  an  Arab  host  in  a  tent  on  the 
desert  was  from  that  moment  under  his  host's  pro- 
tection. To  the  ancient  Greeks  no  law  was  more 
sacred  than  the  law  of  hospitality.  When  a  man  had 
partaken  of  food  in  the  home  of  his  host,  a  covenant 
had  been  formed  between  them. 

A  Persian  nobleman  was  walking  in  his  beautiful 
gardens  when  a  man  came  rushing  to  him  in  great 
distress.  He  was  fleeing  from  the  crowd  whose  shouts 
could  already  be  heard  without  the  gates.  The  noble- 
man was  at  that  instant  eating  a  peach.  To  the  fugi- 
tive he  gave  the  remainder  of  the  peach.  When  the 
crowd    had    forced    their    way    into    the    nobleman's 

75 


76  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

presence,  they  told  him  that  this  man  who  had  hid- 
den himself  from  them  in  the  garden  had  slain  within 
an  hour  the  only  son  of  the  nobleman.  For  this  they 
were  following  him ;  for  this  they  demanded  that  he 
be  turned  over  to  them  for  punishment.  The  noble- 
man hesitated  but  a  moment.  "We  have  eaten  to- 
gether," he  said;  "he  must  go  in  peace."  Only  when 
the  murderer  was  beyond  his  host's  protection  could 
he  be  made  to  answer  for  his  deed. 

With  us  the  moment  of  eating  has  been  made  the 
center  of  family  and  social  life.  On  the  physical  side 
this  is  wise.  That  the  old  proverb  "Good  digestion 
waits  on  appetite"  is  true,  we  have  seen  from  our 
study  of  digestion.  Only  when  taste  prepares  the  way 
do  the  mouth  and  stomach  send  out  their  digestion 
juices  promptly. 

It  has  long  been  suspected  that  smell  has  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  pleasure  in  eating.  Lately  it  has  been 
possible  to  test  this  with  three  persons  who  had  lost 
their  sense  of  smell.  Two  of  them  were  housekeepers, 
familiar  with  food  in  every  stage  of  preparation. 
They  would  have  had  no  idea,  had  these  tests  not 
been  made,  that  their  taste  responses  to  food  were  so 
different  from  those  of  others.  Yet  when  they  were 
blindfolded  and  given  different  foods  to  taste  and 
name,  there  were  whole  groups  of  foods  which  they 
found  it  almost  if  not  quite  impossible  to  identify. 
Butter,  cream,  and  olive  oil  they  could  hardly  tell  apart. 
They  could  give  no  names  to  vanilla  extracts,  pineapple 


THE  MOMENT  OF  EATING  77 

sirup,  bananas,  grapes,  quinces,  strawberries.  Tea  and 
chocolate,- which  each  took  frequently,  they  could  not 
name  without  sight  or  smell.  Sour  milk  they  did  not 
recognize,  nor  did  they  reject  kerosene  when  it  was 
offered  to  them.  Housekeepers  of  similar  experience 
but  with  the  normal  sense  of  smell  were  able  blind- 
folded to  name  these  same  foods  without  difficulty. 

Smell,  as  taste's  silent  partner,  is  evidently  far  more 
important  than  we  have  supposed.  Thinking  back,  we 
can  prove  this  to  ourselves  by  remembering  how  taste- 
less food  is  when  we  have  a  cold  in  the  head  which 
interferes  with  the  keenness  of  our  sense  of  smell. 
Taste  and  smell,  with  sight  for  a  much  less  active 
partner,  are  the  senses  for  whose  examination  the  cook 
must  prepare  food.  Taste  and  smell  have  always  been 
put  low  in  the  scale  of  the  senses,  yet  for  bodily  wel- 
fare and  for  actual  pleasure  they  must  be  reckoned 
high.  Sight  and  hearing  have  to  do  with  w^hat  is  out- 
side the  body ;  taste  and  smell  have  to  do  with  what  is 
entering  the  body.  A  man  may  see  horrible  sights  and 
live ;  he  may  hear  most  distressing  sounds  and  live ; 
but  he  cannot  take  poison  and  live.  Because  it  is  so 
necessary  for  our  well-being,  it  is  said  that  the  sense  of 
taste  is  at  birth  the  best  developed  of  our  senses. 

All  this  new  appreciation  of  taste  and  smell  in  its 
relation  to  food  and  bodily  welfare  gives  us  a  new  stand- 
ard by  which  to  rate  the  skill  of  the  cook.  We 
hold  in  esteem,  says  Hollingworth,"  the  workman  whose 
craft   consists    in    the    preparation    and    arrangement 


78  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

of  sights  and  sounds  in  pleasing  elements,  orders, 
and  compositions."  He  is  an  artist.  "The  workman 
whose  craft  consists  in  the  preparation  and  presenta- 
tion of  acceptable  sensations  of  taste,  smell,  touch,  and 
temperature"  —  the  cook,  is  not  he  or  she  an  artist, 
too?  Cookery  is  the  oldest  science  in  the  world.  It 
has  been  honored  by  kings  and  practiced  by  men  and 
women  of  high  skill.  The  cookbooks  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  written  almost  entirely  by  men,  usually  by 
doctors,  for  medicine  and  cookery  have  always  been  rec- 
ognized as  sciences  which  went  hand  in  hand.  "  I  do  not 
consider  myself  as  hazarding  anything,"  said  Dr.  Lister, 
physician  to  Queen  Anne  and  writer  of  a  very  good  cook- 
book, "  when  I  say  that  no  man  can  be  a  good  physician 
who  has  not  a  competent  knowledge  of  cookery." 

It  is  in  recognition  of  the  pleasure  and  importance 
of  eating  that  man  has  made  it  the  center  of  so  much 
that  is  spiritual  as  well  as  physical.  It  takes  weeks, 
months,  even  years,  for  our  food  to  grow.  It  takes 
hours  and  days  to  prepare  it,  through  the  various 
stages,  for  its  appearance  on  the  table.  It  takes  fifteen 
or  twenty  or  thirty  minutes  to  eat  it.  Of  any  actual 
mouthful  we  are  conscious  only  a  minute  or  two. 
That  moment  should  be  very  satisfying  to  make  all 
the  preparation  worth  while.  Let  us  think  what  we 
do  or  may  do  to  make  it  so. 

We  eat  at  regular  times.  This  is  good  for  our  bodily 
welfare,  as  the  body  adapts  itself  easily  to  taking  small 
amounts  of  food  at  appointed  times.    Go  past  your 


THE  MOMENT  OF  EATING  79 

regular  mealtime  and  the  body  reacts  unfavorably, 
with  discomfort  of  one  sort  or  another.  It  is  bad, 
too,  to  be  eating  all  the  time,  as  it  gives  no  chance  for 
the  rests  which  are  good  for  every  part  of  our  body 
machinery.  It  is  better,  too,  not  to  overload  the  body 
with  all  the  food  at  one  meal,  though  this  custom  of 
frequent  meals  was  not  followed  in  many  periods  of 
which  we  have  historic  record.  Plato,  the  Greek 
philosopher,  was  much  surprised  when,  traveling  in 
Italy,  he  noticed  that  the  inhabitants  ate  twice  a  day 
instead  of  once,  as  was  his  native  custom. 

We  eat  in  groups.  Tasting  is  not  a  social  act. 
Taste  and  smell  require  nearness  to  or  actual  contact 
with  the  object  to  be  smelled  or  tasted.  This  may  be 
one  reason  why  they  have  been  regarded  as  lower 
senses.  Twenty  persons  may  look  at  the  same  picture 
at  one  and  the  same  moment,  sharing  in  the  reactions 
it  causes  in  them.  Only  one  person  may  taste  a  given 
bit  of  food.  Convenience  and  the  social  instinct  have 
supplemented  taste  in  this  respect,  making  eating 
one  of  the  chief  social  functions  of  life.  It  is  much 
easier  to  cook  food  in  quantity  than  to  prepare  single 
portions.  It  is  better  for  one  skilled  person  to  do  it 
over  a  single  fire  than  for  each  person  to  prepare  his 
own  food  over  his  own  little  heater.  So  we  have  food 
cooked  in  bulk  and  ready  for  eating  at  a  certain  time. 
Even  this  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  we  shall 
eat  it  together.  Missionaries  and  teachers  of  backward 
peoples  always  feel  that  they  have  won  a  victory  when 


8o 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


they  persuade  a  family  to  sit  down  at  a  table  and 
eat  together.  In  making  social  the  moment  of  eat- 
ing they  have  strengthened  the  ties  of  family  life. 
Members  of  a  South  Pacific  tribe  living  on  the  island 
of  Tahiti  were  found,  by  the   first  white    men  who 


BACK   TO    BACK 


landed  there,  to  gather  at  the  hour  for  eating,  place 
themselves  at  a  distance  of  two  or  three  yards  apart, 
turn  their  backs  on  each  other,  and  eat  in  utter  silence. 
The  old  custom  had  been  handed  down  to  them  from 
the  days  when  each  feared  that  his  food  might  be  stolen 
from  him  by  his  next  neighbor. 

We   serve   food   attractively.     We   remember   that 
smell  and  sight  are  taste's  silent  partners  and  we  try 


THE  MOMENT  OF  EATING  8 1 

in  every  way  to  meet  their  requirements  as  well  as 
those  of  taste.  A  banquet,  a  luncheon,  a  camping 
supper,  a  "club  feed,"  are  only  incidentally  nourishing. 
It  is  the  social  element  and  the  festive  and  artistic 
element  that  give  them  their  charm.  We  share  the 
deep-rooted  instinct  of  the  ancient  peoples,  to  whom 
eating  together  was  the  highest  form  of  companionship. 
Man  approaches  the  spiritual  through  the  physical. 
We  greet  one  another  by  a  cordial  clasping  of  the 
hands.  We  express  our  friendship  by  satisfying  to- 
gether our  bodily  needs.  Food  has  entered  into  the 
highest  acts  of  religion.  The  Jewish  Passover  is  one 
symbol,  the  Lord's  Supper  another.  In  the  break- 
ing of  bread  together  Jesus  and  his  disciples  sealed 
their  spiritual  union.  Not  only  do  we  dignify  the 
moment  of  eating  when  we  sit  together  about  the 
family  table ;  the  more  we  make  of  family  life  at  meal- 
times the  more  happy  family  life  we  shall  have.  The 
family  table  is  the  place  for  the  sharing  of  family 
interests.  Begin  each  meal  with  a  word  of  thanks  to  the 
Father  in  heaven  for  the  food  which  we  are  about  to 
eat  together,  and  we  have  made  the  circle  complete. 

QUESTIONS 

What  three  senses  have  to  do  with  our  enjoyment  of  food  ? 
Why  do  we  find  food  to  be  without  flavor  when  we  have  colds  ? 
Why  is  it  good  for  us  to  eat  at  regular  times  ? 
What  do  we  gain  by  eating  in  groups  ? 


CHAPTER  XII 

IN  THE  WORLD'S  FOOD  MARKET 

Indian  boys  and  girls  did  not  know  much  about 
markets.  Their  food  came  to  them  directly,  without 
being  bought  or  sold.  They  saw  their  fathers  go  out  on 
the  hunt  to  get  meat.  It  was  brought  home,  dressed, 
and  prepared  for  eating.  They  saw  their  mothers  plant 
corn  and  maize,  harvest  it,  grind  it,  and  make  it  into  a 
kind  of  bread.  Only  when  the  work  of  the  tribe  was 
divided  and  parceled  out  was  there  need  of  a  market 
or  food  exchange.  When  some  were  chosen  for  the 
hunt,  and  others  who  stayed  at  home  must  get  meat 
from  them,  then  for  the  first  time  there  might  be 
buying  and  selling. 

The  world's  first  markets  were  small  and  local. 
People  of  a  neighborhood  brought  in  their  fruits  and 
vegetables,  their  grains  and  meats,  and  shared  by  pur- 
chase or  exchange  in  the  products  of  their  neighbors' 
farms.  All  the  food  displayed  would  come  from  within 
two,  three,  four,  or  five  miles  of  the  place  of  selling. 
When  food  was  exchanged  for  other  food,  instead  of 
money  being  passed,  the  transaction  was  called  barter. 
All  the  early  trade  of  the  world  was  by  barter.   The 

people  in  one  village  had  this  year  more  wheat  than 

82 


IN  THE  WORLD'S  FOOD  MARKET  83 

they  needed ;  those  in  the  next  had  more  pork.  Wheat 
was  sent  from  the  first  village  to  the  market  of  the 
second  village,  which  in  its  turn  sent  back  pork.  So  it 
went  on,  and  the  circle  of  food  exchange  grew  larger 
and  larger  until  to-day,  as  we  have  seen,  we  buy  at  our 
markets  and  eat  at  our  tables  food  from  all  over  the 
world.  Instead  of  being  little  separate  markets,  the 
markets  of  each  village,  town,  and  city  have  become 
branches  of  the  world  s  great  Food  Market.  They  are 
not  independent  of  one  another ;  they  are  like  a  chain 
of  stores  that  encircles  the  globe. 

If  we  had  never  thought  of  the  world  as  buying 
at  one  great  Food  Market,  we  should  have  learned  to 
do  so  during  the  war.  The  war  taught  us  many  lessons. 
The  most  important,  which  we  shall  remember  longest, 
were  those  about  the  oneness  of  the  whole  world.  We 
found  that  our  village  or  town  or  city  or  even  our 
nation  did  not  and  could  not  live  unto  itself.  It  was 
linked  up  closely  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  One  of 
the  ways  in  which  we  felt  this  most  quickly  was  in 
that  great  world's  Food  Business,  into  which,  as  you 
read  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book,  we  were  all  born 
as  partners. 

The  world's  Food  Market  carries  on  a  huge  business, 
Food  is  reckoned  in  tons  and  carloads  and  shiploads 
instead  of  in  pounds  and  packages.  If  all  the  foods 
in  this  market  could  be  spread  out  on  counters  which 
you  could  see,  as  it  is  actually  spread  out  in  millions 
of  branch  shops,  there  would  be,  in  spite  of  the  endless 


84  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

variety  of  foods,  also  a  great  sameness.  All  the  differ- 
ent names  and  kinds  of  vegetables  and  meats  and 
breadstuffs  and  fruits  would  match  up  and  fall  into  a 
few  big  groups.  When  they  had  been  put  into  these 
groups,  a  few  chief  foods  would  stand  out  as  the  foods 
on  which  people  everywhere  depend.  These  take  far 
more  space  on  the  counters  of  the  world  Food  Market 
than  any  others  or  than  many  of  the  lesser  foods 
put  together. 

Wheat,  with  its  sisters  and  cousins,  —  rice,  millet, 
rye,  barley,  corn,  and  maize,  —  holds  chief  place.  The 
world  raises  more  grains  and  cereals  than  any  other 
food.  It  gets  more  nourishment  out  of  them  than  out 
of  any  other  food.  It  ships  more  of  them  from  place 
to  place.  That  is  the  reason  why  wheat  was  a  subject 
of  so  much  importance  in  the  war.  Kings  and  presi- 
dents and  food  administrations,  ambassadors  and 
peace  conferences,  —  all  had  to  give  much  time  and 
thought  to  the  problem  of  raising,  carrying,  and  dis- 
tributing wheat  and  the  other  cereals. 

Sugar  occupies  an  important  place.  In  the  year  1 9 1 3, 
the  year  before  the  war,  the  sugar  crop  of  the  world  was 
nearly  twenty-one  million  tons.  This  was  less  than  one 
fifth  of  the  world's  wheat  crop ;  but  the  sugar  was  pro- 
duced in  fewer  places  than  the  cereals.  Its  circle  of 
exchange  was  larger.  So  our  sugar  shortage  was  due, 
more  than  to  any  other  one  thing,  to  the  lack  of  ships. 
When  we  had  to  go  without  cane  sugar  from  the  tropics, 
we  looked  about  on  the  counters  of  the  world's  Food 


IN  THE  WORLD'S  FOOD  MARKET 


85 


Market  and  found  many  other  nature  sugars  which 
grew  nearer  home.  The  beet-sugar  industry  was  greatly 
helped.  Corn  sirups,  honey,  maple  sirups,  and  the  like 
were  used  as  substitutes  for  sugar.  We  use  sugar 
more  for  its  flavor  than  as  a  food.  A  little  of  it 
will  go  a  long  way  in  flavor,  and  we  can  get  our 
needed    fuel    in    larger    measure    from    other    foods. 


A    VVAR-TLME    EXHIBIT    OF    SUGAR    SUBSTITUTES 

Beans  occupy  a  great  deal  of  space  in  the  world's 
Food  Market.  The  people  who  would  be  crowding  to 
buy  the  largest  amounts  of  them  would  be  the  people  of 
India  and  other  countries  of  the  Far  East.  Our  own 
country  raised  in  the  year  before  the  >  war  only  about 
one  tenth  as  many  beans  as  India.  Beans  of  one  kind 
or  another  are  found  everywhere  in  the  world,  however, 
and  a  most  satisfying  and  nourishing  food  they  are. 

European,  British,  and  American  peoples  would  be 
found  crowding  around  the  potato  counter.    It  would 


86  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

be  a  big  section  of  the  market  and  well  loaded.  A 
bushel  of  potatoes  has  nowhere  near  the  food  value, 
bulk  for  bulk,  of  a  bushel  of  grain.  So  while  potatoes 
take  up  a  great  deal  of  space  and  are  popular,  they 
are  better  to  eat  in  the  local  market  than  to  ship  to 
distant  places. 

We  Westerners  would  be  surprised  to  see  that  meat 
does  not  take  nearly  so  important  a  place  in  the 
markets  of  the  world  as  it  does  in  our  own  local  markets. 
More  than  half  the  people  of  the  earth  eat  very  little 
meat.  This  is  because  in  many  parts  of  the  world 
there  is  not  room  for  the  meat-producing  animals  — 
cattle  and  sheep  and  hogs.  These  animals  must  have 
land  for  grazing.  When  people  come  into  a  region 
and  settle  thickly,  the  meat-producing  animals  are 
crowded  out.  So  the  meat  of  the  world  is  produced  in 
only  a  few  countries  —  Australia,  New  Zealand,  the 
United  States,  Argentina,  and  Canada  —  and  is  eaten 
chiefly  in  those  countries  and  in  lands  to  which  it  is 
easily  carried.  Europe  and  the  British  Isles  buy  a 
good  deal  of  meat. 

The  same  animals  are  far  more  important  to  most 
of  the  world  for  the  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  they 
produce  when  living  than  for  the  meat  of  their  bodies. 
Milk  is  probably  the  most  important  food  we  have  and  is 
increasingly  in  demand,  especially  in  the  Western  world. 
Because  it  is  so  important,  we  should  all  drink  a  good 
daily  portion  of  it.  Here  we  mention  it  only  as  having 
an  important  place  in  the  list  of  mankind's  chief  foods. 


IN  THE  WORLD'S  FOOD  MARKET  Sj 

Fish,  vegetables,  fruits,  and  nuts  are  to  be  found  on 
the  tables  of  local  food  markets.  Japan  eats  a  great 
deal  of  fish,  as  do  many  coast  sections  and  islands. 
Every  country  has  its  own  fruits  and  vegetables. 
Some  of  them  enter  into  the  trade  between  countries. 
But  if  we  could  see  the  world's  Food  Market  as  the 
world's  foods  are  spread  out  on  it,  wheat  and  other 
cereals  would  take  the  most  space ;  sugar  would  call 
itself  to  our  notice  at  once ;  beans,  potatoes,  and 
meats  would  follow  along;  milk  would  stand  out  as 
very  important.  In  each  country  these  chief  foods 
would  be  accompanied  by  local  foods. 

No  boy  or  girl  who  lived  through  the  war  will  find 
this  list  of  chief  foods  hard  to  remember.  The  names 
of  these  appeared  many  tirnes  on  war  posters.  When 
the  war  made  it  hard  to  ship  food  from  one  place 
to  another,  we  tried  to  eat  more  of  the  local  foods. 
Wheat  we  had  to  send  abroad,  because  people  there 
could  not  be  raising  it ;  so  we  cut  down  our  wheat 
ration  and  ate  local  "  substitutes,"  the  sisters  and 
cousins  of  wheat,  which  could  not  be  shipped  so  easily 
but  which  would  give  us  a  good  measure  of  fuel-  and 
life-food  elements.  Corn,  which  is  a  native  American 
food,  came  into  its  own  during  the  war,  giving  us 
of  its  sweetness  in  corn  sirups  as  well  as  its  other 
nourishing  elements  as  a  cereal.  Almost  all  the  war 
substituting  of  foods  was  a  coming  back  to  our  own 
local  markets  instead  of  sweeping  so  wide  a  circle  in 
our  exchange  of  foods.    It  had  the  other  side  too,  that 


88 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


we  tried  to  send  to  empty  food  markets  in  suffering 
lands  food  from  our  local  markets. 

QUESTIONS 

How  did  there  come  to  be  markets  ? 

What  groups  of  foods  hold  chief  places  in  the  world's  Food  Market  ? 
Which  foods  are  best  in  a  local  market  ?   Which  are  shipped  from 
country  to  country  ? 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  PITCHER  AND  THE  LOAF 

In  the  long-ago  days  when  mysterious  and  powerful 
strangers  sometimes  walked  the  earth  in  disguise,  it 
befell  at  nightfall  that  two  travelers  came  to  the  humble 
cottage  of  an  aged  couple,  old  Philemon  and  his 
good  wife  Baucis.  These  strangers,  who  were  humbly 
dressed,  had  been  driven  rudely  out  of  the  neighbor- 
ing village,  where  they  had  sought  food  and  shelter. 
Philemon  and  Baucis  welcomed  them  cordially,  for 
they  were  given  to  hospitality.  However  poor  and 
scanty  their  fare,  they  were  always  more  than  glad  to 
share  it  with  the  hungry  stranger.  So  they  set  before 
these  guests  all  that  the  house  afforded,  grieving  only 
that  their  last  loaf  of  bread  was  half  eaten  and  their 
pitcher  only  partly  filled  with  milk.  But  behold !  as 
the  strangers  lifted  again  and  again  the  pitcher,  which 
a  moment  before  they  had  emptied,  it  had  in  some 
mysterious  way  filled  itself  again,  and  as  Baucis  cut 
the  bread,  thinking  that  each  slice  would  be  the  last, 
there  was  always  another  slice.  The  pitcher  was 
become,  through  the  wonder-working  powers  of  the 
guests,  a  miraculous  pitcher  which  would  never  be 
empty  when  Philemon  or  Baucis  might  need  milk; 
the  loaf  was  renewed  to  meet  the  needs  of  these  guests. 


90  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

With  an  enchanted  pitcher  and  a  self-renewing  loaf 
no  one  need  suffer  for  nourishing  and  palatable  food. 
Bread  and  milk  and  bread  and  butter  (made  from  milk) 
are  the  best  all-round  foods  in  the  world.  No  one 
would  want  to  live  on  them  alone.  Philemon  and 
Baucis  served  their  guests  honey  for  sweets  and 
grapes  for  fruits  and  added  to  their  own  noonday 
meal  vegetables  from  their  garden.  But  as  a  basis 
for  the  diet  of  everyone,  and  particularly  of  growing 
boys  and  girls,  milk  is  the  best  all-round  food,  with 
bread  as  a  close  second.  Put  the  two  together  and 
you  have  life  foods  and  fuel  foods  in  good  measure. 

Milk  is  the  only  kind  of  food  that  should  never 
be  left  out  of  our  diet.  No  matter  what  the  price,  we 
cannot  afford  to  go  without  it.  Milk  is  so  important 
that  every  state  has  whole  books  of  laws  about  it ; 
every  farmer  who  sells  it  is  especially  followed  up  by 
county  and  state  officials.  The  reasons  why  we  should 
every  one  of  us  take  a  quart  if  possible,  but  surely 
a  pint  of  milk,  a  day  are  facts  every  boy  and  girl 
should  know. 

First,  milk  comes  Clearest  of  any  food  to  beiiig  a  com- 
plete diet  in  itself  Babies  live  on  it ;  young  animals 
live  on  it.  It  has  fat  in  it  and  a  milk  sugar;  it  has 
two  very  desirable  proteins,  so  that  a  considerable 
part  of  our  needful  protein  life  food  can  come  from 
it;  it  has  mineral  elements  in  it,  particularly  a  larger 
amount  of  calcium  (lime)  than  any  other  food.  Calcium 
makes  and  remakes  our  bones,  and  in  other  ways  is 


THE  PITCHER  AND  THE  LOAF  9 1 

needed  for  good  health.  There  is  hardly  any  in  meat 
or  bread,  none  in  fats  and  sugars,  very  little  in  most 
other  foods;  but  in  a  quart  of  milk  there  is  enough 
for  a  daily  portion  for  a  boy  or  girl,  in  a  pint  enough 
for  a  grown  person.  Milk  and  the  butter  made  from 
it  have  also  those  two  necessary  items  for  growth  and 
health,  the  vitamines,  which  we  spoke  of  among  our 
life  foods.  We  sent  all  we  could  of  food  containing 
these  vitamines  to  the  starving  children  of  Belgium,  for 
it  was  found  that  these  helped  them  to  grow  and  to  get 
and  keep  well.  We  had  always  had  enough  vitamines 
in  our  diet  so  that  except  in  war  times  or  cases  of 
underfeeding  we  had  not  known  how  much  they  were 
needed.  Milk  has  small  amounts  of  other  elements 
good  for  keeping  the  body  running. 

So,  first,  milk  should  be  take^i  for  the  large  number  of 
good  and  needful  life  foods  and  fuel  foods  in  iL  It  has 
in  it  almost  everything  needed  for  growth  and  body- 
building and  body-running,  though  there  are  other 
things  used  in  these  processes  which  it  does  not 
supply.  It  is  not  a  complete  diet,  but  it  comes  nearer 
to  being  such  than  any  other  food. 

Second,  the  elements  in  m.ilk  are  easily  taken  up  by  the 
human  body.  The  Body  Self  welcomes  milk  because 
its  sugar  can  be  easily  put  to  use,  its  proteins  easily 
turned  into  life-stuff. 

Third,  milk  is  easy  to  cook  with.  Used  with  other 
foods  it  makes  appetizing  dishes.  Turn  over  the  pages 
of  a  cookbook  and  see  how  many  recipes  use  milk. 


92  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

It  is  good  for  us  and  easy  for  the  body  to  take  up; 
it  is  also  in  a  convenient  form  for  us  to  use. 

Fourth,  it  fits  in  with  other  foods  which  we  commonly 
eat  and  makes  up  for  the  elements  which  they  lack.  If  we 
drink  or  take  in  our  cooked  food  a  good  amount  of 
milk  along  with  our  other  foods,  we  may  feel  quite 
sure  we  are  running  our  body  business  well.  If  we 
do  not  take  milk,  we  must  take  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
to  attend  to  getting  the  right  kinds  of  food. 

Fifth,  it  is  eco7iomical —  whatever  its  price.  A  quart 
of  milk  is  equal  in  fuel  value  to  eight  eggs  or  nine 
ounces  of  round  steak.  It  has  been  calculated  that 
milk  at  twenty-five  cents  a  quart  would  be  cheaper 
food  than  eggs  or  steak  at  average  prices.  Here  is 
what  four  writers  have  said  about  it: 

Milk  is  the  cheapest  form  of  animal  food  for  the  money 
that  the  householder  can  buy.  —  H.  B.  Endicott,  State  and 
Federal  Food  Administrator 

The  greatest  factor  of  safety  in  the  human  diet  is  the  reg- 
ular use  of  milk.  —  United  States  Food  Administration 

You  can  get  more  for  your  money  in  milk  in  actual  food 
value,  in  energy,  in  protein,  in  repairing  and  building  proper- 
ties than  in  any  other  food  in  the  world.  —  W.  T.  Sedgwick, 
Professor  of  Biology  in  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 

Milk  is  an  indispensable  article  of  the  diet  of  any  people 

who    wish   to   achieve Without   the   continued  use   of 

milk  ...  we  cannot  as  a  nation  maintain  the  position  as  a  world 
power  to  which  we  have  risen.  The  keeping  of  dairy  animals 
was  the  greatest  factor  in  the  history  of  the  development  of 


THE  PITCHER  AND  THE  LOAF  93 

man  from  a  state  of  barbarism We  are  still  depend- 
ent on  the  dairy  industry  for  our  continued  prosperity. — 
E.  V.  McCoLLUM,  United  States  Nutrition  Expert 

No  wonder  states  and  cities  and  towns  and  homes 
look  after  their  milk  supply  to  see  that  it  is  clean  and 
wholesome,  for  milk,  more  than  almost  any  other  food, 
suffers  from  being  carelessly  handled.  In  the  care  of 
milk  from  the  moment  of  milking  to  the  moment  of 
eating  there  are  three  rules  to  be  followed :  keep  it 
clean  ;  keep  it  cool ;  keep  it  covered.  Follow  these  three 
rules  and  your  milk  will  do  wonderful  things  for  your 
body  health. 

As  soon  as  we  grow  up  from  being  babies  we  pass 
from  having  milk  alone  to  having  bread  with  it  or 
bread  by  itself.  Bread  is  truly,  as  the  proverb  says, 
"  the  staff  of  life."  In  the  problem  of  feeding  whole 
nations  on  the  least  amount  of  food  possible,  during 
the  war,  it  was  found  that  if  the  bread  ration  of  a 
people  was  kept  normal  and  suiBcient  a  great  deal  of 
change  and  of  cutting  down  might  be  practiced  in  the 
other  foods  of  the  diet  without  harm  to  the  health  or 
spirits  of  the  people. 

Bread  has  been  eaten  by  all  peoples,  but  to  some  of 
the  queer  foods  that  other  peoples  have  called  breads 
we  should  not  give  that  name.  They  were  alike  in 
having  been  made  from  a  kind  of  flour  which  was 
made  from  some  cereal.  Here  their  likeness  to  our 
whole-wheat  bread  or  our  white  bread  or  our  biscuits 
and  rolls  and  muffins  ended.   We  as  a  people  have  the 


94 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


best  bread  in  the  world.  We  are  likely  to  eat  too 
much  white  bread  and  too  little  corn  and  graham  and 
whole-wheat  and  other  breads  that  have  in  them  some 
food  elements  for  body-building  and  body-running 
that  white  bread  does  not  have.  All  breads  give  good 
bulk  to  our  food  and  help  the  body  to  keep  its  waste 


IN    AN    ARMY    BAKERY 


materials  moving.  We  should  eat  each  day  one  or 
two  slices  of  some  bread  besides  white  bread  if  we  can. 

When  you  have  a  chance,  watch  while  bread  is 
being  made.  Bread-making  is  carefully  regulated  by  the 
government  —  in  flour  mills,  where  flour  is  made  from 
the  grains,  and  in  public  bakeries,  where  loaves  of 
bread  are  sold.  Bread-making  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting operations  of  cooking  and  is  worth  looking  into, 
until  some  day  you  learn  to  make  bread  yourself. 

So  long  as  we  as  a  nation  have  a  miraculous  milk 
pitcher  that  never  runs  dry  and  a  loaf  of  bread  to  eat 


THE  PITCHER  AND  THE  LOAF 


95 


with  our  milk,  we  shall  not  suffer  for  good  foods.  It 
is  for  you  to  be  sure  that  pitcher  and  loaf  are  given 
sufficient  honor  at  your  table. 

QUESTIONS 

What  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that  milk  is  almost  a  complete  diet  ? 
(See  charts,  pp.  173  and  177.) 

What  are  the  five  reasons  for  milk  in  our  diet  ? 
How  much  should  every  boy  or  girl  take  each  day  ? 
What  part  does  bread  have  in  our  diet  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  GIFT  OF  A  GARDEN 

A  garden  was  God's  first  gift  to  man.  When,  accord- 
ing to.  the  Creation  story,  he  had  formed  man,  the 
Lord  God  went  eastward  and  planted  a  garden. 
There  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had  formed.  "  And 
out  of  the  ground  made  the  Lord  God  to  grow  every 
tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for  food." 
This  garden  man  was  to  "dress"  and  "keep."  Animals 
were  not  given  a  garden.  They  could  not  use  one. 
Like  man  they  eat  plant  food,  but  they  must  take  it 
as  they  find  it.  The  lion  may  be  the  King  of  Beasts, 
but  he  has  no  control  of  the  land  over  which  he  stalks. 
To  man  was  given  dominion  over  the  earth.  The  land 
is  his,  and  he  may  use  it  as  he  will.  The  gift  of  a 
garden  has  been  handed  down  from  father  to  son, 
from  generation  to  generation,  for  all  the  hundreds 
of  years  since. 

You  remember  the  fable  of  the  old  man  who  as  he 

was  dying  told  his  sons  that  in  the  bit  of  land  which 

he  was  leaving  them  lay  buried   treasure.     One  son 

laughed  at  the  idea  and  after  digging  for  a  few  hours 

and  finding  nothing  went  away  to  seek  his  fortune 

elsewhere.    The  other  son  stayed  at  home  on  the  land 

the  father  had  left  them,  and  as  he  worked  over  it  and 

96 


THE  GIFT  OF  A  GARDEN  97 

dug  in  it  and  tended  the  seeds  which  were  planted  in 
it  he  found  in  his  garden  both  health  and  wealth.  To 
him  the  land  had  given  its  hidden  treasure. 

They  are  old  stories,  but  they  are  as  true  for  you 
and  me  as  on  the  day  when  they  were  first  written. 
We  too  can  have  for  the  asking  the  gift  of  a  garden, 
and  there  never  was  more  need  for  the  wealth  that  we 
shall  find  in  it  than  there  is  just  now.  The  saddest 
sight  in  France  is  No  Man's  Land,  that  region  miles 
and  miles  wide  which  was  once  the  fairest  garden 
land  in  France  and  is  now  a  barren  waste,  hideously 
plowed  by  shells  and  sown  with  the  remains  of 
warfare,  so  that  it  will  be  years  and  years  before  it 
can  be  made  to  bloom  again.  Yet  old  men  and 
women  and  children  are  finding  their  way  back  to 
these  desolate  wastes,  eager  to  spend  their  lives  to 
make  this  once  more  the  garden  spot  of  France.  We 
who  take  land  and  garden  stuff  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  even  grumble  a  little  over  the  work  that  must  be 
done  to  plant  the  seeds  and  keep  the  rows  of  little 
plants  free  from  weeds,  may  well  think  of  this  and  be 
thankful  for  our  gift.  The  worst  waste  lot  in  New 
York  City  from  which  Boy  Scouts  took  wagonloads 
of  tin  cans  and  ashes  last  summer  before  they 
made  it  into  a  school  garden  would  seem  wealth  to 
little  French  boys  and  girls  compared  to  their  own 
ruined  land.  Yet  the  French  children  are  making 
battlefields  into  gardens  as  fast  as  ever  they  can. 
While  these  gardens  of  the  war  countries  are  in  the 


g8  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

making,  and  in  the  many  years  before  they  can  be 
what  they  were  before  the  war,  we  must  make  the 
most  of  the  land  which  we  have  and  so  help  to  raise 
food  for  those  who  have   not  our  rich  gift. 

Uncle  Sam  found  out  during  the  war  what  his 
children  can  do  in  the  way  of  food  gardens.  That  is 
why  he  is  piping  for  you  all  to  follow  him  as  he 
leads  the  way  to  the  fields.  "  Let  me  suggest,"  said 
President  Wilson,  as  he  called  the  nation  to  arms 
and  to  service  in  April,  191 7,  "let  me  suggest  that 
everyone  who  creates  or  cultivates  a  garden  helps, 
and  helps  greatly,  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  feeding 
of  the  nations."  The  answer  of  the  boys  and  girls  to 
this  call  was  splendid.  Sixty  thousand  acres  of  land 
that  had  been  lying  idle  was  made  into  food  gardens 
by  a  million  and  a  half  boys  and  girls.  Now,  when 
you  have  a  garden  you  are  joining  an  army,  the 
United  States  School  Garden  Army.  It  is  as  big 
as  the  army  Uncle  Sam  sent  to  France,  and  it  is 
growing  every  day.  When  you  have  joined  it  you 
are  not  only  cultivating  your  own  little  plot  of  land, 
you  are  an  active  partner  with  Uncle  Sam  in  his 
share  of  the  world's  food  business.  Just  at  present 
Uncle  Sam  is  taking  a  very  large  share  of  that 
business  into  his  own  hands  in  order  to  help  out 
the  hungry  peoples  who  have  been  made  land  poor 
and  food  poor  by  the  war.  The  sooner  you  sign  up 
and  get  into  the  School  Garden  Army  the  better 
(on  page   174  you  can  read  how  to  do  it). 


FOLLOW  THE  PIED  PIPER 

Join  the  United  States 
School  Garden  Army. 


lOO 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Having  a  garden  takes  you  out  of  the  ranks  of 
those  who  only  eat  food  and  puts  you  in  the  ranks 
of  those  who  raise  food  for  eating  as  well  as  eating 
what  other  people  have  raised.  The  first  question  to 
ask  yourself  as  a  garden  soldier  is,  What  am  I  going 
to   put  into    my  garden?     It   goes   back  to   another 


GARDEN    SOLDIERS 


question,  Who  is  going  to  eat  what  I  grow  in  my 
garden  ?  You  and  your  family  and  your  neighbors 
will  eat  what  you  grow  in  your  garden.  That  may 
sound  selfish  and  disappointing.  You  have  been  think- 
ing that  you  will  be  ready  to  do  the  work  of  a  garden 
if  it  is  going  to  help  feed  hungry  boys  and  girls  on 
the  other  side  of  the  world.  Now  you  are  told  your 
garden  is  to  feed  yourself.  Feeding  yourself  is  the 
first  thing  for  you  to  do  as  a  garden  soldier,  for  just 


THE  GIFT  OF  A  GAiliXfiN^ 


lOI 


in  so  far  as  you  feed  yourself  Uncle  Sam  will  not 
have  to  feed  you.  He  will  have  just  so  much  more 
food  of  the  kinds  that  can  be  packed  and  shipped  to 
send  overseas.  Uncle  Sam  has  about  so  much  food 
that  is  raised  every  year  in  his  food  business.  Part 
of  it  you  eat ;  not  very 
much,  perhaps,  but  as 
there  are  several  million 
boys  and  girls  who  eat 
each  about  the  same 
amount,  it  counts  up. 
Uncle  Sam  does  not 
want  you  to  eat  less 
than  you  need,  but  if 
you  can  raise  for  your 
own  table  food  that 
would  not  otherwise  be 
raised  and  so  draw  less 
on  his  supply,  you  will 
be  a  very  worth-while 
soldier  and  partner.  To- 
gether the  boys  and  girls  of  the  United  States  can 
release  a  large  amount  of  food  to  go  overseas. 

If  you  and  your  family  are  to  eat  the  food  from 
your  garden,  you  must  raise  food  that  you  will  enjoy. 
You  must  think,  too,  how  vegetables  fit  your  body 
needs.  Fruits  and  vegetables  supply  a  great  deal  of 
water  in  the  diet,  and  that  is  good.  About  two  thirds 
of  your  whole  body  is  water;  the  rest  is  solid.    If  you 


*      *    v»      * 


''dai: >': *'.•  •::..?  A F.0OD  and  life 

weigh  ninety  pounds,  sixty  pounds  of  that  weight 
is  the  water  in  every  tissue  of  your  body.  As  it 
rebuilds  and  runs  itself,  the  body  wants  mixed  in  with 
its  food  a  good  supply  of  water ;  fruits  and  vegetables 
will  give  this.  An  apple  is'  eighty-five  parts  water  to 
fifteen  parts  solid,  a  strawberry  ninety  parts  water  to 
ten  parts  solid.  Even  the  starchy  potato  has  seventy- 
eight  parts  of  water  to  twenty-two  of  life  and  fuel 
foods,  while  celery  has  ninety-four  parts  water  to 
six  of  solid. 

Fruits  and  vegetables  give  good  bulk  to  our  food, 
and  that  the  body  needs.  If  all  our  foods  were  liquid, 
like  milk  and  water,  or  were  closely  packed,  like  medi- 
cine in  tablets,  they  would  not  give  the  digestive  tract 
enough  material  on  which  to  work.  The  waste  of  the 
body  would  not  be  carried  off  so  easily  and  regularly. 
Besides,  we  should  not  feel  as  if  we  had  had  a  good 
meal.  We  want  a  good  deal  of  something  to  eat. 
Fruits  and  vegetables  make  up  that  "  something."  If 
we  have  raised  them  in  our  own  garden  we  are  getting 
the  needful  bulk  at  a  low  price. 

Vegetables  are  plant  foods,  and  as  such  they  vary 
as  to  whether  they  contain  more  stored  fuel  food, 
saved  by  the  plant  for  future  use,  or  more  proteins 
and  other  life  foods.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  depend 
on  them  for  all  these  needs  of  our  bodies.  They  give 
us  mineral  salts.  Milk,  you  remember,  had  calcium 
(lime).  So  do  our  common  vegetables.  They  give  us  also 
good  proteins,  the  foods  which  are  next  to  life  itself 


THE  GIFT  OF  A  GARDEN  103 

and  so  are  needed  for  our  living  cells.  The  leaf  vege- 
tables give  us  in  their  green  parts  good  supplies  of  the 
vitamines,  without  which  we  can  neither  live  nor  grow. 

There  is  one  other  fact  to  remember  about  vege- 
tables in  general.  They  fit  in  well  with  milk  and 
bread  and  butter  to  make  up  a  good  all-round  diet.  If 
we  want  to  treat  the  Body  Self  well  without  taking 
much  trouble  to  figure  out  how  much  of  each  kind  of 
food  we  are  giving  it,  we  are  perfectly  safe  when  we 
have  put  into  our  daily  ration  a  good  mixture  of  milk, 
bread  and  butter,  and  vegetables,  with  a  sprinkling  of 
sugar  and  a  variety  of  fruits. 

Suppose  all  the  common  vegetables  were  to  come 
and  stand  in  a  row  before  you  and  ask,  one  by  one, 
for  a  place  in  your  garden.  If  you  had  room  you  would 
like  to  welcome  them  all.  Perhaps  you  can,  but  even 
then  you  must  choose  which  ones  shall  have  the  most 
space.   Here  is  what  they  might  say  for  themselves: 

Potato.  I  have  a  good  portion  of  fuel  food  stored  up  in 
me ;  I  have  a  little  protein  of  a  kind  that  is  very  much 
needed  and  not  very  common  ;  I  have  a  good  supply  of  vita- 
mines  ;  and  I  have  a  group  of  mineral  salts  without  which 
you  cannot  be  healthy. 

Beans.  You  must  plant  a  good  many  of  my  family,  one 
kind  or  another.  We  all  have  a  good  mixture  of  fuel  and 
life  foods  and  water.  Besides,  we  grow  fast  and  do  not  need 
much  care. 

Tomatoes.  We  are  easy  to  raise,  too,  and  though  we  are 
mostly  water,  we  have  a  good  acid  flavor,  we  have  some  min- 
eral salts,  and  we  look  well  and  taste  good  on  the  table  with 


I04  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

meat  and  potato  and  bread  and  butter  and  some  of  those 
other  plain  foods. 

Lettuce.  I  help  out  a  great  deal  at  table.  I  may  be  made 
up  mostly  of  water,  but  I  have  minerals,  and  I  am  one  of  the 
very  best  of  those  leafy  vegetables  without  which  no  one  can 
get  along. 

Cabbage.  So  am  I,  and  I  have  a  lot  of  nourishment  in 
me,  too. 

Spinach.    So  am  I,  and  I  have  some  iron  for  you. 

Beet.  I  give  you  fuel  food  and  a  sweet  flavor  as  well.  Much  of 
the  sugar  of  the  world  is  beet  sugar,  which  comes  from  such 
beets  as  you  can  grow  in  your  garden.  Why  not  plant  me, 
tend  me,  eat  me,  and  so  get  the  sugar  straight  from  me .? 

Peas.  I  am  good  for  sugar,  too,  and  for  all  the  things 
seeds  give  to  the  diet. 

Carrots.  People  do  not  pay  much  attention  to  me,  but 
they  would  if  they  knew  that  I  have  a  good  supply  of  fuel 
stored  up  in  me,  ten  times  as  much  lime  as  a  potato  of  the 
same  weight,  and  a  good  bit  of  phosphorus.  Really,  I  am  a 
kind  of  all-round  vegetable. 

Radishes,  Parsnips,  and  Turnips.  We  are  roots.  We  are 
very  good  to  eat  and  very  good  for  you. 

You  would  have  quite  a  garden  if  you  listened  to 
them  all,  would  you  not  ?  Read  the  garden  suggestions 
sent  out  by  the  government  for  your  army,  which  you 
may  obtain  by  writing  to  the  Director  of  the  United 
States  School  Garden  Army,  Washington,  D.  C,  talk 
over  your  plans  with  your  parents  and  teacher,  and  then 
choose  which  you  will  plant  by  three  tests :  (i)  what 
you  like,  (2)  what  you  can  raise  easily,  (3)  what  will 
give  you  good  food  value. 


THE  GIFT  OF  A  GARDEN 
QUESTIONS 


105 


In  what  way  is  the  United  States  rich  compared  with  other  countries? 

How  does  your  having  a  garden  help  Uncle  Sam  in  his  Food 
Business  ? 

What  do  fruit  and  vegetables  do  for  the  body  ? 

What  part  do  fruit  and  vegetables  have  in  an  all-round  diet? 
(See  chart,  p.   177.) 

Which  vegetables  shall  you  cultivate  in  your  garden  ? 


OUR  FOOD 

To  make  the  most  of  the  food  supply  about  us,  ive  must 
Remember 

To  enjoy  the  food  which  we  eat, 

so  that  the  body  will  welcome  it ; 
To  cultivate  a  world  appetite, 

so  that  we  may  get  the  benefit  of  sitting  at  a 

world  table ; 
To  eat  at  regular  times, 

so  that  the  body  may  work  and  rest  alternately  ; 
To  dignify  the  moment  of  eating, 

making  it  the  center  of  family  life ; 
To  give  to   the  pitcher  of  milk  and   the  loaf  of 

bread  a  place  of  honor  at  our  tables ; 
To  welcome  at  our  tables  a  variety  of  fruits  and 

vegetables,  raising  them  in  our  own  gardens 

in  so  far  as  we  can. 


CHAPTER  XV 

KITCHEN  SERVICE 

Kitchen  service  is  a  service  into  which  each  one  of 
us  will  at  some  time  in  our  lives  be  drafted.  Most  of  us 
will  probably  do  a  good  deal  of  it,  for  we  have  not  at 
our  command  the  fairy  spell  which  Little  Two-Eyes 
had.  The  wise  woman  found  her  crying  and  taught  her 
a  spell  which  would  keep  her  from  ever  being  hungry 
again.  She  had  only  to  say  to  her  goat,  "  Little  goat, 
bleat;  little  table,  rise,"  and  a  neatly  laid  table  would 
stand  before  her,  with  the  most  delicious  food  on  it. 
When  she  was  satisfied  she  had  only  to  say, "  Little  goat, 
bleat ;  little  table,  away,"  and  the  table  would  disappear. 
When  the  wise  woman  had  vanished,  Little  Two-Eyes 
tried  the  spell,  and  there  before  her  was  a  little  table 
covered  with  a  white  cloth,  on  which  were  laid  a  plate, 
a  knife  and  fork,  and  a  silver  spoon.  The  most  deli- 
cious food  was  there  also,  and  smoking  hot.  "  This  is 
a  beautiful,  easy  way  of  housekeeping,"  said  Little 
Two-Eyes,  and  so  it  was.  But  it  did  not  last  even  for 
Little  Two-Eyes,  for  the  prince  came  and  took  her 
to  a  beautiful  home  of  her  own.  There  she  needed 
neither  goat  nor  table,  for  she  could  have  the  happi- 
ness of  keeping  house  for  herself  without  any  cross 

older  sisters  to  take  away  her  share  of  the  food. 

107 


Io8  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

"I  shall  be  a  far  better  husband  to  some  girl  when 
I  go  home  than  I  would  have  been  if  Uncle  Sam  had 
not  drafted  me,"  said  a  tall,  handsome  soldier,  as  he 
peeled  potatoes  by  an  army  stove  in  France  and 
talked  to  a  visitor  while  he  worked.  "  I  think  I  Ve 
peeled  a  million  of  these  since  I  came  to  France ! 
And  I  thought  I  was  coming  over  here  to  fight 
Germans!"  Uncle  Sam  did  not  despise  kitchen  service 
when  he  came  to  the  problem  of  feeding  his  boys  in 
camps  both  here  and  overseas.  He  drafted  into  this 
branch  of  service  every  man  who  had  had  previous 
experience  in  cooking  and  urged  all  who  showed  any 
interest  or  talent  to  volunteer  for  training.  Schools 
for  army  cooks  were  set  up  in  many  camps.  Here 
men  were  given  three  months'  instruction  in  cooking, 
at  the  end  of  which  time  those  who  had  passed  the 
examinations  received  diplomas  and  were  assigned  to 
be  company  cooks. 

The  cooks  had  to  learn  how  to  use  their  supplies. 
They  had  to  take  the  ration  list  which  was  spoken 
of  in  Chapter  H  (see  pages  lo  and  164)  and 
twist,  turn,  vary,  and  combine  its  ingredients  so 
that  the  hard-working  men  would  be  well  nourished. 
They  had  to  see  that  the  men  had  the  right  num- 
ber of  calories  each  day.  A  soldier  was  using  up  a 
great  deal  of  energy.  He  must  make  up  for  it  by 
a  good  supply  of  fuel  food.  Including  unavoidable 
waste,  the  American  soldier  is  said  to  have  taken  into 
his  body  on  an  average  3635  calories'  worth  of  food 


no  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

daily,  while  his  actual  allowance  was  for  nearly  a  thou- 
sand calories  more.  The  prisoner  of  war  had  sent  to 
him  daily  in  the  enemies'  camps,  through  the  agency  of 
the  Red  Cross,  by  the  advice  of  the  surgeon  general's 
food  experts,  a  2600-calorie  ration. 

If  you  think  you  have  had  to  learn  in  this  book  a 
good  deal  about  calories  and  proteins  and  vitamines 
and  other  food  matters  of  which  you  had  never  heard, 
you  may  rest  assured  that  it  is  "child's  play"  compared 
to  what  these  boys  who  qualified  as  army  cooks  had 
to  learn.  On  whether  they  knew  these  facts  and  could 
make  the  most  of  the  ration  given  them,  so  that  the 
men  would  eat  it  with  relish,  depended  the  health, 
the  morale,  and  therefore  the  fighting  power  of  the 
soldiers.  It  was  a  matter  of  winning  the  war  or  losing 
it.  If  any  boy  had  ever  failed  to  hold  a  good  cook  in 
honor  before  he  went  into  the  army  or  navy,  he  learned 
then  and  there  his  mistake.  The  cook  came  into  his 
own  as  a  person  of  importance. 

But  how  the  boys  hated  the  monotony  of  the  camp 
mess !  How  they  longed  for  the  home  table  and  wel- 
comed the  doughnuts  of  the  Salvation  Army  lassies  or 
the  cups  of  chocolate  of  the  "  Y  "  and  Red  Cross  can- 
teens !  I  doubt  if  there  was  a  man  in  the  army  who 
did  not  write  home  about  the  food  he  was  eating,  about 
the  special  Thanksgiving  dinner,  or  the  treat  he  had 
when  he  was  on  leave.  The  letters  I  received  were  full 
of  such  allusions.  If  you  have  ever  eaten  at  a  restau- 
rant or  a  boarding  house  for  any  length  of  time,  you 


KITCHEN  SERVICE 


III 


will  know  why  the  boys  felt  as  they  did.  Only  a  good 
home  cook,  preparing  food  for  a  small  family  and  put- 
ting love  and  intelligence  into  the  task,  can  set  an  in- 
viting table  day  after  day  and  week  after  week.  Eating 
in  platoons  may  be  necessary  in  war  times,  but  it  is 


THE    CAMP    MESS 


a  dreary  business  to  stand  in  line  and  march  in  to 
dinner  with  a  thousand  other  men.  "  Better  a  dinner 
of  herbs  where  love  is,"  said  the  wise  man  in  the  Book 
of  Proverbs,  and  thousands  of  home-coming  boys  echo 
his  words. 

If  the  home  cook  is  to  be  so  held  in  honor,  she 
must  have  the  knowledge  which  the  army  cook  gained. 
She  must  have  all  his  virtues  and  add  to  them  the 


112  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

charm  of  home  cooking  and  home  service.  Girls  and 
women  are  not  the  only  home  cooks.  Even  as  Gareth 
took  his  turn  at  kitchen  service  when  he  went  as  a 
page  in  King  Arthur's  hall,  so  boys  are  taking  their 
term  of  kitchen  training,  that  they  may  be  capable 
of  providing  for  themselves  in  an  emergency  and  so 
be  independent  all  their  lives.  Of  what  good  are  the 
best  kitchen  or  the  choicest  ingredients  in  the  world 
if  there  is  no  cook  to  use  them  ?  Is  a  boy  or  man  to 
condemn  himself  to  raw  food  if  there  are  no  girls 
or  women  about?  The  army  did  not  think  so.  The 
modern  boy  does  not  think  so.  Boy  Scouts  can  go  off 
on  a  camping  trip  and  cook  most  excellent  meals  for 
themselves.  They  help  their  mothers  with  the  heavy 
jobs  of  kitchen  work  at  home  and  surprise  her  by 
turning  cook  when  she  is  ill  or  absent.  If  w^e  are  to 
be  masters  of  our  own  part  of  the  food  business,  each 
one  of  us  had  better  learn  all  that  can  be  picked  up  at 
home  or  outside  the  home  about  cooking. 

It  takes  a  whole  alphabet  to  go  the  rounds  of  some 
occupations.  Cooking  falls  into  Cs.  We  begin  with 
the  Cook.  To  be  a  good  cook  one  must  be  clean 
and  keep  everything  about  the  preparation  of  food 
clean,  "  'T  is  by  his  cleanliness  a  cook  must  please," 
said  old  Dr.  King  in  his  "Art  of  Cookery,"  written 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago.  We  are  still  surer 
of  this  fact,  for  when  he  wrote  no  one  dreamed  of  the 
germs  and  bacteria  which  are  just  waiting  to  do  harm 
if  things  are  not  kept  pure  and  clean.    No  one  knew 


KITCHEN  SERVICE  II3 

how  flies  pick  up  dirt  and  disease  on  the  cushioned 
balls  of  their  feet  and  carry  it  to  the  next  article  of 
food  on  which  they  may  happen  to  light.  In  a  public 
bakery  or  food  shop  everything  has  to  be  kept  clean. 
This  is  so  important  that  it  is  required  by  law.  We 
are  still  allowed  to  be  the  ones  who  make  the  law  in 
our  own  homes,  but  for  health's  sake  we  must  observe 
it  none  the  less  carefully. 

Cooking  is  a  crafL  It  is  an  art  that  requires  knowl- 
edge and  skill.  To  become  a  craftsman  —  that  is,  a 
skilled  worker  at  any  handwork  or  trade  —  should 
always  be  regarded  as  a  great  achievement.  The  boy 
who  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  served  his  apprentice- 
ship and  won  his  place  as  a  craftsman  in  any  line  of 
handwork  was  entitled  to  many  privileges.  Cooking 
is  a  simple  craft.  It  is  not  hard  to  learn  if  we  may 
learn  it  by  practice  and  at  the  elbow  of  a  skilled  cook. 
It  is  an  art  or  craft  worthy  our  best  attention,  for  on 
it  depends  the  health  and  happiness  of  the  household. 
To  the  cook  falls  the  planning  of  the  meals.  The  food 
to  be  served  must  be  so  portioned  that  there  are  fuel 
foods  and  life  foods  in  good  measure ;  its  ingredients 
must  be  combined  attractively  and  in  a  way  that  saves 
and  brings  out  the  best  nourishment  in  each;  all  the 
dishes  must  be  ready  to  serve  at  one  and  the  same 
minute.  The  hot  things  must  be  hot,  the  cold  things 
thoroughly  chilled.  Sweets  and  sours  must  be  put 
together  to  please  our  sense  of  taste.  The  good  cook 
knows  all  about  tastes  and  flavors.    It  is  said  that  the 


114  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

admitted  leadership  of  French  cooks  in  their  craft  is 
due  to  their  highly  cultivated  appreciation  of  tastes 
and  flavors. 

There  are  four  main  tastes :  sweet,  sour,  bitter,  and 
salt.  Sweets  we  taste  at  the  tip  of  the  tongue;  sour, 
at  the  sides ;  bitter,  at  the  back ;  and  salt,  over  nearly 
the  whole  tongue.  When  we  mix  foods  to  bring  out 
the  flavor,  we  do  one  of  three  things.  We  keep  one  or 
other  of  these  tastes  separate  and  distinct,  unmixed 
with  anything  else,  as  in  salt  fish  or  sweet  desserts. 
Or,  second,  we  plan  a  meal  so  that  wc  get  one  taste 
after  another  in  quick  succession.  Or,  third,  we  put 
them  together  so  that  one  takes  away  the  sharp  effect 
of  the  other.  For  instance,  we  put  sugar  with  cranber- 
ries or  apples  in  making  cranberry  or  apple  sauce,  the 
sweet  of  the  sugar  to  oppose  the  sour  of  the  cranberry 
or  the  apple  and  make  of  the  two  together  a  taste 
which  we  like.  We  put  sugar  in  lemonade  or  tea  for 
the  same  reason.  Foods  like  potato,  bread,  and 
cereals  are  useful  because  they  do  not  have  a  highly 
pronounced  taste  of  their  own.  We  do  not  tire  of 
them,  and  we  can  put  a  variety  of  more  highly  flavored 
foods  with  them.  There  is  no  end  to  what  the  good 
cook  comes  to  know  about  appetizing  combinations. 

When  the  cook  has  seen  that  everything  is  kept 
clean,  which  is  the  first  C,  when  she  has  come  to 
look  upon  cooking  as  a  craft  (making  herself  a  skilled, 
intelligent  worker)  which  is  the  second  C,  she  must 
look  after  the  calories  to  see  that  her  family  gets  enough 


KITCHEN  SERVICE 


115 


of  energy  taken  into  the  body  to  match  their  energy 
output.   Calories,  the  units  of  fuel  value,  are  the  third  C 

She  will  see,  too,  that  her 
kitchen  is  convenient  We 
have  new  ideas  nowadays 
about  kitchen  service.  We 
used  to  say, "  That  is  a  good 
big  kitchen";  we  are  learn- 
ing to  say,  "What  a  conven- 
ient little  kitchen  !  "  We  are 
beginning  to  reckon  kitchen 

work  by  the  number  of  steps  taken  and  to  use  every  de- 
vice to  make  this  work  easy  and  swift.  The  big  kitchens 
of  the  Middle  Ages  were  planned  and  presided  over  by 


CONTENTS    OF    THE   ARMY    COOK  S    CHEST 
See  also  same  chest  closed,  above  and  on  page  117 


ii6 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


men,  who  had  under  them  a  whole  army  of  helpers. 
Labor  meant  little  to  them.  They  could  have  as  many 
steps  taken  as  they  wished.  When  one  person  must 
take  all  the  steps,  convenience  must  be  considered. 
Our  smallest  and  most  modern  kitchens  were  planned 
and  are  used  by  men.  They  are  the  dining-car  kitchen 


AN    ARMY    ROLLING  KITCHEN 


and  the  army  movable  kitchen.  In  the  picture  you 
see  a  most  compact  and  convenient  type  of  army 
"rolling  kitchen."  It  looks  small.  Yet  it  is  intended 
to  serve  three  hundred  men  and  can  take  care  of  a 
considerably  larger  number.  On  it  a  total  of  1 20  gal- 
lons of  liquid  food  and  160  pounds  of  roast  meat  can 
be  prepared  at  one  time.    The  kitchen  when  spread 


KITCHEN  SERVICE 


117 


out  is  shown  here,  giving  an  idea  of  its  very  complete 
equipment,  even  to  the  chest  with  the  cook's  utensils. 
We  can  plan  the  arrangement  of  our  own  kitchens  so 
that  the  work  may  be  done  swiftly  and  easily. 

Lastly,  the  cook  must  see  that  the  food,  the  table, 
and  the  manner  of  serving  have  charm.   That  is  what, 


THE    SAME    KITCHEN    UNPACKED 


with  all  its  science  and  labor,  the  army  mess  could  not 
achieve.  It  is  something  that  the  simplest  home  table 
can  easily  achieve.  The  Japanese  make  of  the  serving 
of  tea  a  ceremony  which  lends  to  a  simple  cup  of  tea  a 
real  distinction.  The  table  that  was  spread  for  Little 
Two-Eyes  had  its  white  cloth  and  its  silver  spoon. 
This  is  where  boys  and  girls  can  begin  at  once  to  help 


ii8 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


the  cook.  They  can  bring  the  dishes  into  which  the 
food  is  to  be  put  and  arrange  them  in  the  right  places  ! 
on  the  table.  They  can  set  the  table  with  every  fork  i 
and  knife  and  spoon  laid  straight.  They  can  pick  ' 
flowers  for  the  center  of  the  table.  Best  of  all  they  ! 
can  bring  cheerful  faces  to  table.  Then  the  cook  : 
will  have  her  reward  for  all  her  work,  for  "  the  proof  ' 
of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating."  A  happy,  well-fed 
family  is  the  sign  of  a  good  cook. 

QUESTIONS 

What  was  the  fuel  value  in  calories  of  the  soldier's  ration  ?  i 

How  much  was  your  ration  in  calories  ?  ■ 

How  much  was  a  farmer's  ration?    (See  page  24.)  \ 

How  does  a  family  table  gain  over  a  hotel  or  army  mess  ?  1 
What  are  the  four  main  tastes?    How  do  we  combine  them  in 

cooking  ?  \ 

What  are  the  five  C's  which  the  cook  must  remember  ?  ] 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FOOD  AND  MONEY 

All  the  money  in  the  world  would  do  us  no  good  if 
there  were  no  food.  King  Midas  found  that  out.  He 
was  fonder  of  gold  than  of  anything  else  in  the  world. 
When  he  was  given  a  chance  to  speak  his  dearest  wish, 
he  wished  that  everything  he  touched  might  be  turned 
to  gold.  His  wish  was  granted,  but  how  unhappy  he 
was !  Every  bit  of  food  which  he  touched  turned  to 
gold  before  he  could  put  it  into  his  mouth.  He  arose 
from  the  breakfast  table  far  richer  in  money  than  when 
he  sat  down  but  poorer  in  comfort,  for  he  was  hungry, 
and  he  had  no  prospect,  with  all  his  gold,  of  ever  being 
able  to  satisfy  that  hunger  with  appetizing  food.  It 
took  him  only  a  few  minutes  to  weary  of  the  gift  of  the 
golden  touch  and  rejoice  when  he  was  allowed  to  become 
an  ordinary  man  again.  This  is  a  fairy  story,  but  like 
many  fairy  stories  it  has  a  thread  of  truth  in  it.  Money 
has  no  value  in  itself.  Its  only  value  is  that  we  can 
exchange  it  for  what  we  wish  and  need. .  Money  is  a 
social  convenience  and  necessity.  Robinson  Crusoe 
alone  on  his  island  would  find  it  of  no  value,  while  a 
fruit  tree  would  be  of  great  value  because  it  could  fur- 
nish him  food.    We  all  know  this,  but  it  is  good  for  us 

119 


I20  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

to  stop  and  think  about  it  sometimes.  With  money 
rightly  understood  and  put  in  its  proper  place,  other 
things,  like  food,  take  their  proper  place,  too.  As  you 
think  about  it  I  believe  food  will  rise  in  your  esteem, 
and  money,  mere  money,  will  take  a  lower  place. 

Food  and  money  are  always  being  put  into  the  scales 
and  balanced  one  against  the  other.  You  are  doing  it 
yourself  every  day.  You  go  to  the  store  to  buy  apples. 
"  How  much  are  apples  worth  to-day  ? "  you  ask.  You 
are  putting  your  money  on  one  side  of  a  scale  in  your 
mind  and  apples  on  the  other.  You  are  asking  how 
many  apples  will  balance  in  value  the  twenty-five  cents 
you  have  in  your  pocketbook.  When  you  are  told  the 
price,  you  will  have  found  out  how  much  your  twenty- 
five  cents  is  worth  in  terms  of  apples.  At  one  time  of 
year,  when  apples  are  plenty,  your  twenty-five  cents 
will  be  worth  twice  as  much  in  apples  as  at  another 
time  of  year  when  they  are  scarce.  It  seems  at  first 
thought  as  though  a  quarter  had  a  quarter's  worth  of 
value,  whether  it  would  buy  so  many  apples  or  twice  as 
many  apples.  But  you  know  for  yourself  it  has  not. 
If  you  need  a  certain  number  of  apples,  you  may  have 
to  give  up  two  quarters  for  them  instead  of  one. 
Your  quarter  will  have  shrunk  in  value  since  the  last 
time  you  bought  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  value 
of  money  in  the  world  of  business  and  commerce  is 
being  reckoned  every  day  in  terms  of  food  value,  just 
as  the  money  in  your  pocketbook  had  to  be  reckoned 
in  terms  of  apples.   The  reason  for  this  is  that  people 


FOOD  AND  MONEY  121 

must  have  food.  So  food  becomes  a  world  standard  of 
values.  The  price  of  food  comes  to  be  balanced  with 
and  counted  as  the  worth  of  money. 

Let  me  give  you  an  example  of  how  this  balancing 
of  food  and  money  works  out  in  practical  business.  A 
man  was  trying  in  my  hearing  to  prove  to  a  customer 
the  other  day  that  the  automobile  for  which  he  was 
salesman  was  cheaper  than  it  was  two  years  ago,  although 
the  price  in  dollars  was  the  same.  It  cost  one  thousand 
dollars  two  years  ago;  it  was  costing  one  thousand 
dollars  now.  "  Then  how  is  it  cheaper?"  asked  the  cus- 
tomer. "  It  is  cheaper,"  replied  the  salesman,  ''  because 
wheat  has  gone  up  in  price,  and  with  it  everything  else 
has  gone  up."  Wheat  is  the  great  staple  crop  of  the 
United  States.  The  price  of  wheat  does  in  a  way  set 
the  standard  for  other  prices  and  so  fix  the  value  of  the 
money  in  your  pocketbook  and  mine.  When  wheat 
goes  up  in  price,  flour  and  bread  and  fodder  for  animals 
and  beef  and  everything  else  begins  to  go  up,  too.  It 
would  take  more  than  a  thousand  dollars  in  money  to 
buy  this  year  the  same  amount  of  wheat  that  could 
have  been  bought  for  a  thousand  dollars  two  years  ago. 
But  a  thousand  dollars  would  buy  the  same  car.  There- 
fore, said  the  automobile  salesman,  the  car  is  cheaper 
now  than  it  was  two  years  ago.  Because  all  people  must 
have  food,  whether  they  have  automobiles  or  not,  food 
is  a  world  standard  of  value.  The  prices  of  wheat  are 
read  every  day  with  the  greatest  interest  by  men  who 
are  handling  money  all  over  the  world.   Your  father 


122  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

could  doubtless  find  them  for  you  in  almost  any  news- 
paper. Men  are  reading  them  to  see  how  much  their 
money  is  worth  to-day  and  will  be  worth  to-morrow, 
whether,  as  they  say,  "times  are  hard"  or  "times 
are  easy." 

It  is  worth  while  to  think  about  food  and  money  in 
this  way,  in  which  the  moneyed  people  of  the  world 
think  about  them,  for  you  are  going  to  be  balancing 
food  and  money  every  day  of  your  life.  You  must  be 
fed.  The  two  questions  that  will  interest  you  will  be 
How  much  money  will  it  take  to  feed  me  ?  and  How 
much  money  shall  I  have  left  when  I  have  been  fed  ? 
We  must  have  enough  to  eat ;  but  the  less  money  we 
spend  on  food,  the  more  we  have  for  all  our  other  needs. 
Money  spent  on  food  to  keep  ourselves  well  nourished 
is  money  well  spent.  Money  spent  on  food  beyond 
what  we  use  or  need  is  wasted  money,  for  when  it  is 
gone  we  have  nothing  to  show  for  it  except,  perhaps, 
doctors'  bills  if  we  have  overcrowded  our  body  machine. 
The  facts  you  have  learned  in  this  book  about  the  kinds 
of  food  your  body  needs  will  help  you  to  get  more 
and  better  food  value  for  your  money. 

If  there  is  a  choice  between  three  foods  which  you 
might  buy  with  your  twenty-five  cents,  choose  the  one 
with  the  most  food  value.  Take  milk  for  an  example. 
A  quart  of  milk  has,  you  remember,  the  same  fuel 
value  as  nine  ounces  of  round  steak  or  eight  eggs.  Put 
your  quarter  on  one  side  of  the  scale  and  see  how  much 
more  milk  you  can  get  for  it  than  steak  and  eggs.    It  is 


FOOD  AND  MONEY 


123 


foolish  to  burn  expensive  meat  for  fuel  when  cereals  and 
their  products  (breakfast  foods,  rice,  corn  meal,  flour,  and 
bread)  are  as  good  for  fuel  and  much  cheaper.  Get  a  bit 
of  meat  for  flavor  and  for  its  life  foods,  but  stolce  your 
furnace  with  cheaper  foods.  A  cup  of  cocoa  has  an 
amazing  fuel  value,  yet  cocoa  is  not  at  all  expensive. 


'1 


ALIKE    IN    FUEL    VALUE,    UNLIKE    IN    PRICE 

Tea  and  coffee  have  practically  no  food  value  except 
as  flavors,  and  they  contain  elements  which  are  bad 
for  growing  boys  and  girls. 

People  are  becoming  wiser  in  balancing  their  money 
against  their  food  and  getting  the  most  value  for  the 
money  they  are  spending.  But  there  is  much  that  they 
do  not  yet  know.  Boys  and  girls  can  learn  these  facts 
and  be  a  real  help  in  the  family  buying.  When  the 
price  of  milk  went  up  a  few  cents  in  New  York  City 
in  war  time,  the  wise  people  kept  right  on  buying  milk, 


124 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


for  they  knew  that  with  the  way  other  foods  were  going 
up  in  price  milk  would  give  more  food  value  even  at 
fourteen,  fifteen,  or  sixteen  cents  a  quart  than  other  foods 
they  could  buy.  But  in  the  poorer  districts  of  the  city 
only  half  as  much  milk  was  bought  as  in  ordinary  times 
at  the  usual  price.   Those  people  thought  they  were 

saving  money  by 
cutting  their  milk 
orders.  Probably 
most  other  foods 
which  they  were 
buying  cost  more 
than  milk  for  an 
equal  food  value. 
But  they  did  not 
know  it.  This 
book  is  to  tell 
you  these  facts, 
so  that  you  will 
know  them.  If 
anyone  told  you  that  learning  a  few  facts  and  putting 
them  into  practice  would  double  the  number  of  pen- 
nies or  nickels  or  dimes  in  your  pocket,  you  would 
be  in  a  hurry  to  know  what  these  facts  were. 
When  you  come  to  buying  food  the  facts  about 
food  values  that  you  have  already  learned  will  in- 
crease the  buying  power  of  your  money.  They  may 
help  in  your  family-buying  now,  for  if  you  will  eat  and 
enjoy  plain,  simple  foods,  your  parents  will  not  have  to 


FOOD  AND  MONEY 


125 


buy  fancy  foods  to  keep  you  contented.  Get  your  food 
bulk  out  of  cereals  and  vegetables ;  your  flavor  out  of 
sugar  and  small  portions  of  meat,  out  of  fruits  and  the 
more  fancy  foods ;  and  your  all-round  nourishment  out 
of  milk,  with  some  eggs  cooked  in  your  food.    Eat  all 


A    WEEKLY    MARKET    IN    LINCOLN,    NEBRASKA 

the  foods  in  their  season.  These  are  the  rules  for  eating 
that  will  make  your  money  worth  more  in  food-buying. 
Selling  is  the  second  part  of  the  story  of  food  and 
money  as  it  concerns  you,  for  if  you  are  raising  food 
you  may  very  likely  have  something  to  sell.  To  raise 
food  and  then  sell  it  to  your  neighbors  or  at  local  stores 
is  as  good  patriotism  as  it  is  good  business.  You  are 
creating  or  cultivating  food  that  would  not  otherwise 
be  created  or  cultivated.  If  you  have  more  of  it  than 
you  need,  you  are  helping  in  Uncle  Sam's  food  business 


126  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

when  you  put  it  on  the  market.  It  matters  not 
whether  you  are  selling  pigs  that  you  have  raised  or 
eggs  or  butter  or  vegetables.  People  are  buying  every 
one  of  these  products  from  someone.  If  your  product 
is  good,  clean,  and  sold  at  a  fair  price,  they  might  as 
well  buy  of  you.  They  will  be  glad  to  do  so  if  you  are 
one  of  Uncle  Sam's  food  army,  wearing  his  badge  of 
service.  Remember  that  part  of  the  business  of  selling 
is  to  find  a  market  that  is  not  overstocked. 

Saving  is  the  third  part  of  the  story  of"  food  and 
money.  It  is  a  wicked  waste  to  buy  food  and  then  let 
part  of  it  spoil  or  throw  it  away  mixed  in  with  real 
waste.  In  preparing  food  the  good  cook  uses  every 
nourishing  bit  of  the  materials  she  has  bought.  At 
table  everyone  must  follow  the  "  law  of  the  clean  plate," 
taking  only  what  he  intends  to  eat  and  then  eating  it 
to  the  last  scrap.  In  the  army  they  put  boys  who  did 
not  follow  the  "law  of  the  clean  plate,"  but  left  good 
food  on  their  plates,  at  a  separate  table,  which  was  soon 
nicknamed  the  "  hog  table."  Here  they  were  some- 
times given  their  own  left-overs  to  eat,  sometimes 
provided  with  stated  amounts  of  food  instead  of  being 
left  to  dish  out  their  own  portions. 

We  must  not  make  it  necessary  to  have  a  special 
table  for  us.  Left-overs  from  the  main  dishes  must  be 
made  over  into  appetizing  dishes.  "  Don't  feed  your 
garbage  pail  at  the  expense  of  your  pocketbook,"  said 
Mr.  Hoover  during  the  war.  It  is  good  doctrine  for 
us  all  to  remember  when  we  think  of  food  and  money. 


FOOD  AND  MONEY 


127 


One  other  way  to  save  is  to  lay  up  for  the  future.   This 
will  be  described  in  the  next  chapter. 

QUESTIONS 

What  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that  money  is  a  social  convenience  ? 

How  do  we  sometimes  reckon  the  value  of  money  in  terms  of  the 
food  it  will  buy  ? 

How  can  you  sometimes  double  the  food  value  of  the  money  in 
your  pocketbook  ? 

How  can  we  so  spend  our  money  as  to  get  an  all-round  diet  ? 
(See  chart,  p.  177.) 

What  is  the  "  law  of  the  clean  plate  "  ? 


CHAPTER  XVII 
FOR  FUTURE  USE 

As  winter  follows  summer,  so  the  storing  of  food 
must  follow  the  harvesting  of  crops.  Man  lives  on  a 
daily-ration  plan,  but  food  does  not  fall  at  his  feet  like 
manna  from  heaven,  an  equal  amount  each  day  in  the 
year.  It  comes  by  the  seasons,  and  in  its  season  a 
portion  of  each  crop  must  be  put  away  for  the  months 
ahead.  The  squirrel  knows  this  and  works  diligently, 
storing  away  nuts  for  winter.  A  dog  buries  a  bone 
for  to-morrow.  A  fable  tells  the  sorry  story  of  the 
grasshopper  that  sang  all  summer  while  the  ants  were 
hard  at  work  laying  up  winter  supplies  and  then  went 
to  the  ants  in  winter  pleading  for  food.  "  What  did 
you  do  all  summer? "  asked  the  ants,  sternly.  "I  sang," 
replied  the  grasshopper.  Nature  showers  a  wealth  of 
food  upon  us.  It  is  for  us  to  save  as  well  as  sing 
during  the  months  of  her  bounty. 

Left  to  themselves  most  foods  do  not  keep  more 
than  a  few  hours  or  days.  The  processes  within  them- 
selves which  resulted  in  their  growing  and  ripening 
do  not  stop  all  at  once  but  continue,  bringing  them 
soon  past  the  stage  where  they  are  palatable.  In  all 
living  tissue  there  are  tiny  life  forms,  so  small  that 

they  can  be  seen  only  through  the  microscope,  called 

128 


FOR  FUTURE  USE 


129 


bacteria,  yeasts,  and  molds.  These  forms  of  life  must 
be  killed  if  the  food  is  to  be  kept  from  decay.  When 
they  have  been  killed,  the  food  is  sterile.  Sterile 
food  will  keep  indefinitely  if  closed  away  from  the  air. 


fc-^^ 


FISH    IN    COLD    STORAGE 

Except  for  a  slight  loss  of  flavor  it  will  have  the  same 
taste  and  appearance  when  we  open  it  as  it  did  when 
we  closed  it  months  before.  It  must  be  kept  from  the 
air,  for  the  air  is  full  of  tiny  forms  of  life.  You  have 
heard  them  called  germs.  They  will  attack  any  food 
which  is  within  their  reach.  Like  other  plants  they 
need  for  their  life  warmth,  food,  and  moisture.  Like 
other   plants   they   cannot   live   in    more   than    their 


130  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

normal  temperature,  but  are  killed  by  excessive  heat 
or  cold.  On  these  facts  depend  the  three  methods  of 
food  preservation,  —  by  cold,  by  heat,  and  by  drying. 

Cold  is  the  most  common  agent  for  protecting  food 
from  too  rapid  ripening  or  from  spoiling.  Food  is  put 
into  the  refrigerator,  where  the  temperature  is  low. 
This  method  is  used  in  homes  to  keep  food  for  short 
periods ;  it  is  used  in  great  refrigerating  plants  to  keep 
food  for  long  periods.  It  is  also  used  when  food  must 
be  carried  long  distances.  Milk,  meat,  and  other  food 
products  come  to  us  in  refrigerator  cars,  kept  at 
a  temperature  at  which  the  tiny  life  forms  cannot 
work.  In  homes  food  of  certain  kinds  may  be  stored 
for  long  periods  in  cool,  •  dry  places.  Apples,  pears, 
potatoes,  beets,  cabbages,  carrots,  onions,  and  turnips 
are  examples  of  the  fruits  and  vegetables  which  may 
be  stored  in  this  way.  Root  vegetables  and  starchy 
fruits  lend  themselves  best  to  this  easy  method  of 
preservation.  Moderate  heat  and  comparative  dryness 
are  sufificient  for  them. 

Heat  is  the  most  effective  and  swift  agent  for  kill- 
ing destructive  life  forms.  Nothing,  not  even  these  tiny, 
persistent  bacteria,  can  live  through  a  few  moments 
of  great  heat.  Canning,  preserving,  and  the  making  of 
jams  and  marmalades  all  require  intense  heat.  Canning 
depends  on  heat,  or  in  the  cold-pack  method  on  heat 
and  cold,  without  the  necessary  addition  of  anything 
but  water.  Preserving  requires  the  addition  of  sugar. 
Old-fashioned  preserves  used  to  be  made  on  "  pound 


FOR  FUTURE  USE  1 31 

for  pound  "  recipes,  a  pound  of  sugar  for  each  pound 
of  the  fruit  to  be  preserved.  Sugar  is  often  added 
during  the  process  of  canning,  but  it  is  added  chiefly 
for  the  flavor,  not  as  a  means  of  "  keeping  "  the  fruit. 
In  preserving  so  much  sugar  was  used  for  the  actual 
"preserving,"  or  "keeping,"  of  the  fruit  that  the  sweet- 
ness often  covered  from  the  taste  the  real  flavor  of 
the  fruit.  Nowadays  canning  is  preferred,  as  an 
easier  and  more  economical  method  which  keeps  the 
original  flavor.  Both  canning  and  preserving  depend 
on  heat  as  the  agent  for  killing  all  the  life  forms. 
Water  is  put  with  the  fruit  or  vegetable  to  make 
possible  the  heating,  as  either  would  burn  if  direct 
heat  were  applied.  Last,  but  not  least,  the  jars  or 
cans  must  be  quickly  and  tightly  sealed  from  the  air 
so  that  no  outside  life  can  attack  their  contents. 

Vinegar,  salt,  and  spices  are  used  as  well  as  sugar 
to  keep  food  for  considerable  periods  of  time.  Like 
sugar  they  hinder  the  growth  of  any  bacteria,  molds, 
yeasts,  or  germs.  They  also  add  flavor.  The  name 
given  to  this  way  of  treating  food  is  pickling.  Salt  is 
used  also  as  an  assisting  agent  in  connection  with 
another  method  of  food  preservation,  drying. 

Food-drying  is  an  old  process,  probably  the  oldest 
method  of  food  preservation  in  the  world.  Early  col- 
onists on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  followed  the  example 
of  the  Indians  in  drying  their  corn,  meat,  fish,  and 
fruits.  Lately,  especially  during  and  since  the  war, 
this  simple  method  has  been   revived  and   extended 


132  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

far  beyond  any  former  use.  The  government  now 
sends  out  directions  for  home  drying  of  fruits  and 
vegetables  just  as  it  sends  out  canning  instructions 
(see  page  175).  We  have  learned  that  much  of  our 
food  is  one-half,  two-thirds,  three-fourths,  or  nine- 
tenths 'water.  Much  of  this  water  will  evaporate  under 
proper  drying  conditions.    The  dried  part  will  then 


1 

■PH 

nn^' 

n 

m^^^i^ 

BEETS  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  DRYING 

keep  almost  indefinitely  if  packed  away  from  the  dust. 
A  pasteboard  box  or  a  strong  paper  bag  will  serve  to 
hold  the  dried  products,  as  they  do  not  need  the  care- 
ful sealing  required  for  canned  fruits  and  vegetables. 
In  the  home  this  is  a  convenient,  inexpensive,  and 
easy  way  to  take  care  of  small  amounts  of  fruit 
or  vegetables  which  might  otherwise  spoil.  It  may 
also  be  used  for  larger  quantities.  Dried  products 
are  useful  in  commerce,  as  they  take  little  space 
and  weigh   little  compared  to  the   original  products 


FOR  FUTURE  USE 


133 


and  are  therefore  profitable  and  convenient  to  ship 
and   to  handle   in  retail  stores. 

Processes  of  food  preservation  are  important  in 
the  home.  Boys  and  girls  have  done  wonders  within 
the  last  few  years  in  their  canning  clubs.  Mothers  and 
daughters  have  formed  clubs  which  report  at  county 
fairs  thousands  of  jars  to  the  credit  of  a  small  group. 


SPINACH    BEFORE    AND    AFTER    DRYING 


Farmers  and  housewives  have  looked  on  with  astonish- 
ment while  boys  and  girls  from  the  canning  clubs  gave 
demonstrations  of  swift  and  successful  use  of  govern- 
ment methods.  Every  boy  and  girl  should  feel  a  care 
that  fruit  and  vegetables  be  not  wasted  under  his  or 
her  eyes.  Garden  products  not  needed  for  the  table 
should  be  put  up  by  some  one  of  these  methods  for 
future  use.  Nor  need  we  depend  on  our  own  gardens 
only.  We  can  watch  our  neighbors'  gardens  and  the 
markets  to  buy  any  surplus.    We  can  pick  berries  and 


134 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


bring  them  home  to  be  canned.  Nothing  will  taste  so 
good  in  the  winter  months  as  the  contents  of  these 
jars,  brought  out  one  by  one  from  the  preserve  closet. 
They  will  also  prove  far  less  expensive  than  similar 
canned  products  purchased  at  the  stores.   While  all 


A    CHAMPION    DEMONSTRATION    TEAM 

these  methods  of  food-storing  are  home  processes, 
they  are  also  in  far  greater  measure  commercial 
processes.  What  used  to  be  done  in  the  home,  and 
the  home  only,  is  now  done  on  a  big  scale  in  the 
factory,  and  our  'home  tables  are  the  gainers.  The 
good  housewife  likes,  however,  to  depend  on  her 
own    product. 

The    United    States   is   the   largest   producer   and 
consumer   of    canned    goods    in    the    world.    About 


FOR  FUTURE  USE  1 35 

one  hundred  years  ago  an  Englishman  brought  to 
America  a  process,  which  was  at  the  same  time 
being  patented  in  France,  of  seahng  food  in  air-tight 
containers.  It  was  demonstrated  that  food  so  sealed 
would  keep  indefinitely.  The  problem  was  how  to 
manufacture  air-tight  containers  inexpensively  and  in 
large  quantities.  Then  came  the  tin  can.  Some  day 
someone  will  write  the  romance  of  the  tin  can,  that 
humble  container  of  food  which  we  take  so  for  granted 
and  treat  with  so  little  respect.  The  tin  can  lengthened 
man's  food  tether  almost  indefinitely.  Before  its  manu- 
facture men  who  had  gone  in  sailing  vessels  on  long 
whaling  expeditions,  being  away  from  home  supplies 
of  fresh  food  for  a  year  or  more,  had  often  come  home 
ill  with  diseases  directly  due  to  the  lack  of  vegetables, 
fruits,  and  milk.  Now  they  could  carry  these  necessary 
elements  of  diet  in  cans  and  live  healthily  and  well. 
"  Canning,"  it  has  been  said,  "  more  than  any  other 
invention  since  the  introduction  of  steam,  has  made 
possible  the  building  up  of  towns  and  communities 
beyond  the  bounds  of  varied  production."  It  has  made 
possible  the  interchange  of  foods  in  the  world's  Food 
Market.  The  tin  can  has  had  its  share  in  enabling  us 
to  sit  at  a  world  table. 

To  store  food  wisely  is  a  sign  of  thrift.  Nature  has 
given  to  America  a  wonderfully  bountiful  provision 
of  food.  To  waste  any  part  of  it  is  a  national  sin.  To 
save  what  we  need  for  ourselves  and  to  put  the  rest 
into  such  form  that  it  can  be  sent  to  those  in  other 


136 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


lands  who  need  it  is  a  national  duty.  By  doing  our 
personal  share  in  seeing  that  food  is  saved,  not  wasted, 
we  can  help  in  this  great  patriotic  service. 

QUESTIONS 

What  conditions  do  bacteria  require  for  their  life  ? 
By  what  processes  may  we  take  away  these  conditions  from  them 
and  so  preserve  food  ? 

What  is  the  difference  between  canning,  preserving,  and  pickling  ? 
How  did  the  tin  can  help  in  the  discovery  of  the  north  pole  ? 
How  did  it  help  in  the  winning  of  the  war  ? 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

FOOD  AND  HEALTH 

The  Chinese  have  a  custom  of  paying  a  doctor  to 
keep  them  well.  Our  way  has  been  to  call  a  doctor 
only  when  we  were  ill,  paying  him  for  his  services 
during  the  illness.  Their  way  would  be  to  .  pay 
a  doctor  so  much  a  year.  If  the  man  keeps  well 
the  doctor  has  no  further  duties.  In  case  of  illness  the 
doctor  must  attend  his  patient  without  extra  charge. 
The  Chinese  are  not  sufficiently  skilled  in  the  medical 
knowledge  which  prevents  disease  to  have  this  plan 
work  out  very  well,  but  the  plan  itself  is  a  splendid 
one.  It  is  the  modern  idea  which  is  being  adopted  in 
schools  and  factories,  as  well  as  in  the  army  and 
navy,  to  prevent  illness  rather  than  to  wait  for  it  to 
come  upon  us.  This  book,  and  especially  this  chapter, 
takes  the  place  of  the  Chinese  doctor,  whose  business 
it  is  to  see  that  his  patients  keep  well.  In  the  chapter 
on  Food  and  Money  it  was  said  that  the  knowledge 
you  gain  from  this  book  may  double  and  triple  the 
money  in  your  pocketbook.  If  you  will  follow  the 
rules  given  in  this  chapter  they  will  save  you  doctors' 
bills  and  much  discomfort.  Good  health  depends  in 
large  measure  on  food.  It  is  not  hard  to  keep 
well,  for  good   health  is   natural    and    normal ;    it  is 

137 


138  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

much  harder  to  get  well  after  an  illness.  So  pretend 
that  you  have  called  in  your  doctor  and  told  him 
you  want  him  to  keep  you  well  and  that  these  are 
his  instructions. 

The  state  of  Massachusetts  prints  its  "  Food  Rules 
for  School  Children "  on  a  card  which  every  child 
may  have.  We  will  take  these  rules  as  those  of  our 
doctor  and  test  them  by  our  knowledge  to  see  if  we 
can  tell  why  the  Department  of  Health  prescribed 
them  for  the  children  of   Massachusetts. 

1 .  Begin  the  day  by  drinking  a  glass  of  water  and  drink  at 
least  six  glasses  dicing  the  day. 

Why  was  this  rule  put  in?  We  have  learned  that 
two  thirds  of  our  body  weight  is  water.  Every  cell  in 
our  bodies,  every  tissue  of  living  matter,  needs  water. 
Every  bit  of  our  food  must  be  carried  in  liquid  form 
to  the  hungry  and  thirsty  parts  of  the  body.  Water 
helps,  also,  to  keep  up  the  body  processes ;  it  helps  to 
carry  off  waste.  Solid  food  does  not  give  us  water 
enough.  Nature  helps  children  in  keeping  this  rule 
by  making  them  thirsty. 

2.  Do  not  go  to  school  without  breakfast. 

Why  not?  Because  you  will  be  hungry;  not  only 
will  the  conscious,  thinking  You  feel  hungry  but  the 
Body  Self  will  need  food.  It  has  gone  through  a  long 
night  without  food ;  now  it  must  have  something  on 
which  to  work. 


FOOD  AND  HEALTH  1 39 

3.  Eat  regularly  three  times  a  day. 

We  learned  in  Chapter  XI  that  the  body  becomes 
accustomed  to  having  its  food  at  regular  times  and 
adapts  its  ways  to  those  times.  Also,  the  body  can 
handle  its  daily  ration  in  three  parts  more  easily  than 
all  at  once. 

4.  Eat  slowly  and  chew  all  food  well. 

Why?  First,  to  get  the  full  taste.  We  shall  not 
have  that  taste  more  than  an  instant  at  best.  If  we  do 
not  roll  the  food  around  a  bit  in  our  mouths,  it  may 
not  touch  those  taste  buds  which  are  ready  to  appreci- 
ate it.  We  taste  sweet,  you  remember,  on  the  tip  of  the 
tongue,  sour  at  the  sides,  bitter  at  the  back,  and  salt 
nearly  all  over  the  tongue.  If  a  food  is  a  mixture,  as 
most  foods  are,  it  must  touch  nearly  the  whole  tongue 
for  us  to  get  its  best  flavor.  Second,  there  is  an  agent 
in  the  mouth  that  wants  to  begin  to  split  some  kinds 
of  food  apart.  We  must  give  it  a  chance  to  do  it. 
Third,  the  food  must  be  chewed.  Food  for  the  stomach 
should  be  in  a  soft,  pulpy  form.  Our  teeth  are  put 
into  the  mouth  to  enable  us  to  change  the  food  from 
solid  to  semiliquid  form.  The  saliva  helps  on  the 
process.  To  send  food  down  to  the  stomach  in  pieces 
and  chunks  of  solid  matter  is  not  fair  to  the  Body  Self. 

5 .  Drink  milk  every  day ;   four  glasses  are  not  too  much. 

What  are  the  reasons  why  we  should  drink  milk? 
It  is  an  all-round  food,  coming  nearer  to  being  a  com- 
plete diet  in  itself  than  any  other  food.   It  has  in  it  fat, 


FOOD  AND  HEALTH  '         141 

milk  sugar,  two  desirable  proteins,  calcium  for  bones, 
iron,  and  vitamines  for  growth.  It  is  easy  for  the  body 
to  take  into  itself.  It  fits  in  with  other  foods  which  we 
commonly  eat  and  makes  up  in  elements  which  they 
lack.  It  is  economical.  What  else  did  we  learn  about 
milk  ?  To  keep  it  clean,  to  keep  it  cool,  and  to  keep  it 
covered.  This  is  because  it  is  easily  changed  by  those 
life  forms,  the  bacteria,  of  which  we  were  speaking  in 
the  last  chapter.   (See  charts,  pp.  172  and  173.) 

6.  Eat  some  breakfast  cereal  every  day. 

Why  ?  Cereals  are  good  fuel  foods.  They  give  bulk. 
They  have  necessary  life  elements.  They  are  not 
expensive. 

7.  Eat  some  vegetable  besides  potato  every  day. 

Vegetables  give  bulk,  mineral  matter,  vitamines, 
and  some  protein  and  fuel  food.  They  supply  a  good 
variety  in  the  diet. 

8.  Eat  bread  and  butter  at  every  meal ;  dark  breads  are  best. 

Bread  and  butter  are  almost  a  diet  in  themselves; 
dark  breads  have  some  food  elements  which  are  lost 
in  making  the  flour  white. 

9.  Eat  some  fruit  every  day.  Spend  the  pennies  for  apples 
instead  of  for  candy. 

"An  apple  a  day  keeps  the  doctor  away "  is  a  good 
proverb  to  remember.  Fruit  gives  to  our  diet  min- 
erals, liquids,  and  some  fuel  food.  It  has  a  little  life 
food,  and  it  adds  flavor  and  variety  to  our  meals. 


142 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


lO.  Do  not  eat  candy  between  meals ;  eat  candy  and  other 
sweets  only  at  the  end  of  a  regular  meal. 

Candy  is  a  concentrated  fuel  food  of  high  heating 
capacity.    Put  in  between  meals  it  is  likely  to  choke 


A    SCHCXJL    LUNCH    IN    NEW    YORK 

the  furnaces  and  stop  you  from  getting  the  energy 
you  want  to  keep  your  body  processes  going  and  let 
you  run  and  play. 

1 1 .  Do  not  drink  tea  or  coffee ;  it  does  the  body  no  good 
but  does  it  harm. 

Tea  and  coffee  are  taken  for  their  flavor.  They  do 
not  add  food  value,  and  they  have  in  them  elements 
which  are  particularly  bad  for  growing  boys  and  girls. 

12.  Do  not  eat  or  touch  any  food  without  first  washing  the 
hands. 

13.  Do  not  eat  fruit  without  first  washing  it. 


FOOD  AND  HEALTH  1 43 

14.  Do  not  eat  with  a  spoon  or  fork  which  has  been  used  by 
another  person  without  first  washing  it. 

1 5 .  Do  not  drink  from  a  glass  or  cup  which  has  been  used 
by  another  person  without  washiiig  it. 

These  last  four  rules  are  for  that  cleanliness  in  serv- 
ing and  eating  that  must  also  be  carried  out  in  cook- 
ing. Dirt  and  disease  germs  are  always  floating  about 
in  the  air.  Food  is  going  to  be  allowed  entrance  to 
the  inside  of  our  bod}^  It  must  go  in  clean,  not  carry- 
ing with  it  germs  which  will  do  harm. 

The  Child  Health  Organization  in  New  York  City 
puts  its  rules  and  principles  in  an  alphabet,  the  "  Child 
Health  Alphabet."^  Here  are  a  few^  of  its  twenty-six 
food  letters: 

B  is  for  Butter  and  Beans  and  Brown  Bread ; 

Also  k)r  Baths  before  Breakfast  or  Bed. 
C  is  for  Cereals  and  Cocoa  too ; 

Consider  the  Calories  coming  to  You. 
I  is  for  Iron  in  Spinach  and  Eggs, 

Builds  Red  Blood  and  Sinews  for  Strong  Arms  and  Legs. 
M  is  for  Milk,  which  makes  Muscle  and  Bone ; 

Not  less  than  a  Pint  every  day  till  you  're  grown. 
S  is  for  Sugar  and  Sirup  and  Sweets ; 

Every  Child  must  have  occasional  Treats. 
T  is  a  Topic  which  Trouble  begins ; 

Both  Tea  and  Coffee  for  Children  are  Sins. 
W  is  for  Water,  the  best  thing  to  drink 

Between  Meals  as  often  as  ever  we  think. 

1  Copyright,  Child  Health  Organization,  1918. 


144 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


These  are  two  ways  to  put  the  rules  by  which  your 
food  business  is  to  be  run  into  a  form  that  will  help 
you  to  remember  them.  Why  not  make  a  food  card 
or  an  alphabet  of  your  own?  Then  you  can  repeat  it 
over  and  over  until  you  know  it  so  well  that  you  will 
always  remember  to  act  by  it. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
FOOD  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT 

Group  life  makes  for  the  convenience  and  comfort 
of  each  member  of  the  group.  This  is  true  of  a 
family  and  a  small  community.  It  is  equally  true  of 
a  nation.  A  single  member  of  a  group  rarely  gives 
as  much  to  the  group  in  the  way  of  service  as  he 
gets  from  it  in  assistance  and  protection.  No  one  of 
us  ever  renders  to  our  government  a  quarter  or  a 
tenth  or  a  hundredth  part  of  the  service  which  our 
government  gives  to  us. 

This  is  especially  true  in  regard  to  our  food.  Our 
government  did  not  wait  until  it  called  a  citizen 
army  from  their  homes  and  put  them  into  camps 
to  look  after  their  food.  It  had  been  looking  after 
the  food  of  each  member  of  that  army  in  his  home. 
In  camp  it  could  control  his  food.  Before  he  went 
into  camp  it  could  only  watch  over  and  protect  so 
far  as  was  possible  the  food  which  he  was  likely  to 
buy.  It  had  watched  over  his  milk,  to  make  it  pos- 
sible for  him  to  buy  clean  and  rich  milk.  It  had 
inspected  his  meat  at  every  stage,  from  its  source 
until  it  was  handed  to  him  over  the  counter  by  a 
clerk.  It  had  tested  the  contents  of  sample  cans  of 
food  before  the  manufacturer  was  allowed  to  seal  and 

145 


146  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

send  his  product.  The  government  had  not  actually 
fed  each  man  until  he  came  into  the  army.  But  in 
so  far  as  it  could  it  had  taken  the  part  of  the  taster 
who  used  to  taste  the  king's  food  before  it  was  put 
on  the  table.  It  has  done  what  it  could  to  protect 
the  man  from  taking  a  mouthful  of  food  which  was 
not  clean,  pure,  and  wholesome. 

Food  protection  is  not  new.  We  read  in  the  laws 
of  England  as  far  back  as  1773  that  "a  standard 
wheat  loaf  shall  weigh  three  fourths  of  the  wheat  of 
which  it  is  made."  This  means  that  only  one  fourth 
of  any  ingredient  except  wheat  was  allowed  in  the 
loaf  of  bread  which  the  public  baker  might  sell.  The 
man  whose  bread  was  found  to  be  below  standard 
might  be  drawn  through  the  streets  on  a  hurdle 
with  the  offending  loaf  tied  about  his  neck.  So  pub- 
lic a  punishment  would  surely  make  him  mend  his 
ways  in  the  future. 

If  a  family  could  raise  all  its  own  food,  supervis- 
ing every  process  through  which  it  is  put,  it  could 
protect  itself.  At  least  the  family  would  be  respon- 
sible for  any  lack  of  cleanliness  or  any  impurity  in 
the  process  or  the  finished  product.  Many  hands 
must  touch  it  before  it  comes  to  our  tables. 

As  soon  as  people  begin  to  exchange  food,  they 
lose  direct  knowledge  of  the  food  in  its  journey  from 
its  source  to  its  destination.  When  this  food  ex- 
change comes  to  take  place  in  a  county,  a  state, 
and   a   continent,  a   single   person  cannot   trace   his 


FOOD  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT 


147 


food.  Food  inspection  must  then  be  taken  over  by 
the  government.  There  must  be  pure-food  laws.  We 
have  seen  how  food  is  made  up  of  many  elements. 
For  the  sake  of  greater  profit  or  for  the  sake  of  keep- 
ing food  longer  from  spoiling,  manufacturers  and  men 


A    MINNESOTA    CHAMPION    TEAM 

who  handle  food  in  large  quantities  are  tempted  to 
substitute  one  element  for  another  in  food  in  a  way 
that  is  not  fair  to  the  person  who  buys  it.  There 
may  also  be  danger  to  his  health.  The  government 
takes  account  of  all  these  possibilities.  It  instructs 
the  makers  of  canned  goods  to  print  on  the  label  of 
each  can  a  statement  of  what  is  in   the  can.    The 


148  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

buyer  may  then  know  exactly  what  he  is  buying. 
It  makes  out  general  requirements,  which  are  like 
the  recipes  in  cookbooks,  as  standards  for  flour  and 
milk  and  similar  staple  foods.  We  should  be  very 
grateful  to  the  men  who  worked  for  many  years  to 
get  pure-food  laws  on  our  statute  books  and  are  on 
the  lookout  to  see  that  they  are  enforced. 

The  land  of  a  people  is  its  wealth.  The  care  of 
the  land  is  in  the  hands  of  the  farmer.  He  holds 
the  land  as  trustee  for  a  hungry  world.  Out  of  the 
land  occupied  by  the  farmer  must  come  not  only  the 
necessary  food  for  himself  and  his  family  but  also 
a  surplus  for  the  markets  of  the  world.  Farmers 
of  the  twentieth  century  have  done  splendid  serv- 
ice in  increasing  the  crops  from  the  land.  In  this 
the  government  has  helped  and  encouraged  them. 
To  take  crops  from  the  land  as  coal  is  taken  from 
a  mine  is  to  make  the  land  poor  for  the  future. 
From  fertilizers  the  land  gets  back  the  needful  ele- 
ments which  crops  have  taken  from  it.  To  plant 
crops  which  need  one  kind  of  soil  on  land  fitted 
for  another  kind  of  crop  is  to  fail  to  get  the  best 
from  the  land.  From  being  an  occupation  by  which 
one  might  earn  a  living  farming  has  become  a  science. 
On  the  farmer  rests  the  responsibility  for  feeding  the 
world.  The  government  does  well  to  recognize  him 
as  the  chief  partner  in  its  food  business  and  give 
him  the  benefit  of  all  its  stores  of  knowledge  and 
experience.    Every  boy  and  girl  who  has  even  a  tiny 


FOOD  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT 


149 


garden  may  get  the  help  and  advice  of  the  govern- 
ment through  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  Farming  is  the  most  important  and 
most  necessary  business  in  the  world.  Everyone 
who  chooses  it  for  his  or  her  vocation  comes  under 
the  special  notice  and  protection  of  the  government. 


READY    FOR   WORK 


Over  in  France  there  was  at  the  headquarters  a 
huge  bulletin  board  on  which  were  hung  reports  of 
the  quantities  of  food  in  every  army  depot  in  France. 
It  was  kept  up  to  date  by  a  constant  shifting  of  the 
reports.  Anyone  looking  at  that  board  could  tell 
exactly  the  amount  of  food  available  for  the  army 
at  any  given  time  or  place.  The  government  at 
Washington  has  similar  knowledge  of  all  the  food 
in  this  country.     It  publishes  monthly  surveys,  which 


150  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

farmers  and  market  men  may  receive,  showing  how 
much  food  of  every  kind  is  on  hand.  It  tells  how 
many  bushels  of  wheat  or  pounds  of  meat  or  butter 
are  in  storage,  how  many  are  being  moved,  and  how 
many  will  probably  be  available  in  the  near  future. 
Such  information,  gathered  from  all  over  the  coun- 
try, puts  the  government  in  a  position  where  it  can 
plan  for  and  advise  its  citizens.  It  is  as  if  the  depart- 
ment in  Washington  were  on  a  mountain  top,  look- 
ing out  over  its  fields  and  warehouses.  From  this 
mountain  top  it  makes  its  survey,  considering  the 
feeding  of  millions  of  people  as  if  they  were  a  unit, 
a  single  family. 

In  war  time  the  people  of  the  United  States  taught 
themselves  and  the  world  a  wonderful  lesson  in  de- 
mocracy. Looking  out  from  Washington  and  regard- 
ing the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a  unit,  the 
people  saw  that  their  food  supply  must  be  treated 
as  a  whole  and  portioned  out  with  infinite  care  if  all 
the  people  were  to  be  well  fed  and  the  necessary 
amount  of  food  sent  abroad.  So  the  government 
added  to  its  usual  departments  for  protection  and 
advice  and  assistance  a  Food  Administration.  Food 
control  by  a  government  is  nothing  new.  Every 
autocratic  ruler  down  the  centuries  had  practiced 
food  control  by  some  arbitrary  rationing  system.  It 
was  the  glory  of  our  democracy  that  the  people 
responded,  went  more  than  halfway  to  meet  the  gov- 
ernment.   So  readily  and  willingly  did  they  respond 


^mi 


Save  i 

products  of  the  Land 

Eat  more  fish  —^ 

they  feed  themselves./ 


152  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

to  the  appeals  of  Mr.  Hoover  and  his  fellow  admin- 
istrators for  food  conservation  that  the  element  of 
necessary  control  by  the  government  was  completely 
overshadowed  by  the  voluntary  self-rationing  of  the 
people.  As  the  recruit  in  the  army  camps  was  taught 
that  in  saluting  his  officers  he  was  saluting  the  author- 
ity which  as  a  free  citizen  of  the  republic  he  had 
himself  had  a  hand  in  setting  up,  so  the  people  in 
accepting  their  food  rations  recognized  that  this  was 
no  arbitrary  order  from  above.  Their  own  government 
was  acting  for  them.  It  was  showing  them  how  to 
use  well  and  wisely  the  food  in  their  possession.  If, 
as  has  been  said,  food  is  the  test  of  democracy,  our 
democracy  met  the  test  and  came  out  victorious. 

QUESTIONS 

How  does  the  government  protect  food  ? 

Why  must  we  depend  on  the  government  to  look  after  our  food  ? 

How  is  the  farmer  trustee  of  the  land  ? 

How  did  the  people  meet  the  government's  war-time  food  control  ? 


CHAPTER  XX 

AT  A  WORLD  TABLE 

The  graduates  of  one  of  the  great  colleges  live  in 
almost  every  state  in  the  Union.  Each  year  the  gradu- 
ates of  different  sections  of  the  country  meet  in  some 
city  convenient  to  them  all  and  hold  a  banquet.  This 
year  they  planned  that  all  these  scattered  groups  should 
hold  their  annual  banquet  in  their  accustomed  cities  at 
exactly  the  same  moment.  This  meant  that  some  of 
the  banquets  had  to  be  held  at  unusual  times  of  day 
because  of  the  differences  in  standard  time.  It  was 
further  arranged  that  all  these  banquet  tables  should 
be  connected  by  telephone,  each  guest  having  at  his 
plate  a  telephone  receiver  of  his  own.  The  result  was 
that  friends  two  thousand  miles  apart  sat  listening  at 
the  same  moment  to  the  same  after-dinner  speeches. 
The  group  in*  San  Francisco  spoke  to  the  group  in 
New  York  City,  and  Chicago,  Seattle,  and  Baltimore 
listened  and  took  their  turns  in  the  conversation. 
Though  they  were  hundreds  of  miles  apart,  in  thirty- 
five  different  cities,  these  graduates  were,  so  far  as 
communication  was  concerned,  sitting  at  the  same  table. 

Newspapers  serve  the  same  purpose  as  telephone 
receivers  in  making  us  remember  that  while  we  are 

153 


154  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

sitting  at  our  own  tables  we  are  also  sitting  at  a  world 
table.  Even  as  we  buy  at  a  world  market  and  eat  from 
a  table  spread  with  foods  from  all  over  the  world,  so 
we  sit  at  a  table  at  which  is  seated  with  us  all  the  rest 
of  the  hungry  world. 

War  has  brought  the  picture  of  a  world  table  freshly 
to  our  minds.  The  United  States  gave  its  splendid 
example  of  voluntary  self-rationing  because  of  the 
appeal  of  other  members  of  the  world  family  who  were 
rising  from  the  table  hungry  because  there  was  not 
food  enough  to  satisfy  them.  The  United  States  had 
food  in  plenty  for  itself.  It  deliberately  set  aside  a  part 
of  that  food  for  the  needs  of  the  warring  nations.  It 
sent  out  of  the  country  food  which  it  might  have  eaten, 
because  Americans  would  not  stuff  themselves  with 
plenty  while  others  starved.  This  was  a  beautiful  thing 
to  do;  but  it  was  the  only  thing  to  do.  No  man  or 
woman  or  child  could  have  enjoyed  food  if  he  had  been 
actually  sitting  at  table  with  hungry  Belgians  or  Ser- 
bians or  Poles  or  Armenians  who  were  not  being  fed. 
The  danger  was  that  we  should  forget  these  other 
members  of  the  world  family  because  they  were  out  of 
sight.  That  is  the  danger  always.  We  need  to  stir  our 
imaginations  to  picture  this  world  table.  When  we  are 
tempted  to  leave  good  food  on  our  plates  or  to  throw 
away  a  piece  of  bread,  we  must  train  ourselves  to  see 
some  hungry  child  reaching  out  for  bread  and  not  get- 
ting it  because  there  is  not  enough  to  go  around.  The 
chief  lesson  of  sitting  at  a  world  table  is  not  to  waste. 


AT  A  WORLD  TABLE 


155 


If  we  eat  what  is  set  before  us  we  release  for  sending 
overseas  other  foods  which  are  needed  there. 

The  sharing  of  food  is  the  sign  of  a  new  world 
brotherhood  for  which  men  everywhere  are  hoping  and 
working.  Science  has  made  it  possible  for  the  world 
^o  become  one,  sitting  at  one  table.    A  man  can  speak 


SERVING    TEA    IN    JAPAN 

from  Wales  to  Australia  by  wireless  message  in  a  fif- 
teenth part  of  a  second.  Surely  no  nation  need  go 
hungry  without  other  nations'  knowing  of  its  need.  Our 
land  and  ocean  systems  of  transportation  make  it  pos- 
sible to  send  food  quickly.  Our  new  scientific  farming 
makes  it  possible  to  raise  food  to  feed  adequately  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  land  has  never  been  worked 
as  it  can  be  worked.  Two  blades  of  grass  can  be 
made  to  grow  where  one  grew  before.    A  small  plot 


156 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


of  ground  properly  enriched  and  tended  and  protected 
from  pests  will  yield  far  more  than  it  ever  yielded  under 
old  farming  methods.  Yet  without  the  vision  of  a  world 
table  and  the  desire  for  a  world  brotherhood  science 
alone  would  be  slow  in  saving  the  world  from  famine. 


BOY-SCOUT    GARDENERS 


To-day  we  are  all  summoned  to  take  part  in  a  new 
crusade — to  drive  famine  from  the  earth.  Famine  is  a 
dreadful  specter  that  has  always  stood  just  behind  the 
poor  man  and  the  nation  whose  food  supply  was  barely 
equal  to  its  needs.  It  has  been  ready  to  pounce 
on  its  victims  the  moment  wages  ceased  or  a  crop 
failed,  bringing  with  it  attendant  woes  of  disease 
and  anarchy.  It  is  the  enemy  of  law  and  order,  the 
foe  of  prosperity  and  contentment. 


AT  A  WORLD  TABLE  1 57 

To  drive  famine  from  the  earth  more  food  must  be 
raised.  Even  before  the  war  the  world  was  in  danger 
of  going  hungry.  The  population  of  the  globe  is  increas- 
ing. Its  food  supply  must  therefore  increase.  Every 
human  being  must  eat ;  he  must  be  a  consumer  of  food. 
The  more  need  there  is  of  food,  the  more  producers 
there  must  be.  "  Everyone  who  creates  or  cultivates 
a  garden  helps,  and  helps  greatly,  to  solve  the  problem 
of  the  feeding  of  the  nations,"  said  President  Wilson. 
To  solve  this  problem  there  must  be  more  than  gar- 
deners; there  must  be  farmers.  The  farmer  is  the 
leader  in  the  world  crusade  against  famine.  To  be  a 
food  producer  is  to  be  an  active  partner  in  the  world's 
food  business,  and  active  partners  were  never  more 
needed.  Boys  and  girls  should  think,  when  they  are 
choosing  what  they  will  be,  whether  they  can  choose 
this  for  their  vocation.  If  they  can,  they  will  be  doing 
a  splendid  service. 

To  drive  famine  from  the  earth  there  must  be  less 
waste.  Here  everyone  can  take  a  part.  "  This  is  the 
time  for  America  to  correct  her  unpardonable  fault  of 
wastefulness  and  extravagance.  Let  every  man  and 
woman  assume  the  duty  of  careful,  provident  use  and 
expenditure  as  a  public  duty." 

To  drive  famine  from  the  earth  there  must  be  world 
brotherhood.  Here  boys  and  girls  can  help.  When 
boys  and  girls  do  anything,  they  do  it  with  all  their 
might.  They  do  it  joyfully  as  an  adventure.  They  do 
it  all  together  as  they  would  play  a  game.    They  do  it 


153 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


in   the   spirit  of   King   Arthur's  knights,  who 
abroad  redressing  human  wrong."    For  them 

every  morning  brought  a  noble  chance, 
And  every  chance  brought  out  a  noble  knight. 


rode 


U.  S.  Official 
AMERICAN    SOLDIERS    SHARING    WITH    FRENCH    CHILDREN 


They  gloried  in  a  vision  of  a  world  protected  and  puri- 
fied by  their  valor,  and  in  that  vision  wrought 

All  kind  of  service  with  a  noble  ease 
That  graced  the  lowliest  act  in  doing  it. 

To  raise  food  or  save  food  without  a  vision,  as  many 
worthy  folks  are  doing,  is  good  service,  but  it  is  not 


AT  A  WORLD  TABLE 


159 


the  kind  of  service  that  makes  of  the  world  one  brother- 
hood. For  that  we  must  have  the  vision.  Boys  and 
girls  are  the  ones  who  can  catch  the  vision  and  work 
for  it.  They  can  keep  before  themselves  and  others  the 
vision  of  all  the  world  seated  at  one  table,  repeating 
together  the  familiar  prayer,  "  Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread."  They  can  help  to  answer  that  prayer 
for  the  world,  and  so  become,  like  Arthur's  knights, 
"  the  fair  beginners  of  a  nobler  time." 


PARTNERS 


To  be  good  partners  in  the  "world's  Food  Business,  iiae  must 
Remember 

To  eat  with  enjoyment  food  which  the  body  needs ; 
To  buy  wisely,  getting  the  best  food  value  for  our 

money ; 
To  prepare  food  carefully  and  serve  it  attractively ; 
To  raise  from  the  land  as  much  food  as  we  can ; 
To  store  for  the  future  the  crops  in  their  seasons ; 
To  save  food   from  waste  in  our  homes   and   in 

our  communities ; 
To  honor  the  industries  and  workers  contributing 

to  our  world  table ; 
To  make  ourselves  worthy  to  sit  at  the  world  table, 
By  reminding  ourselves  always  to  save  and  share. 
By  keeping  before  ourselves  and  others  the  vision 

of  a  world  table,  at  which  everyone  is  fed,  so 

that  in  our  time  famine  may  be  driven  from 

the  world. 

As  partners  in  the  world's  Food  Business 
We  so  covenant. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES 

FOR  TEACHERS  AND  PUPILS 

I 

WEIGHT  AS  A  TEST 

For  growing  boys  and  girls  weight  is  the  quickest  and  surest 
index  of  health.  The  child  who  has  become  interested  in  the 
successful  management  of  his  own  personal  department  of  the 
food  business  should  be  taught  to  regard  his  weight  and,  more 
important  still,  his  rate  of  gain  in  weight  as  the  test  by  which 
he  may  know  whether  he  is  supplying  to  his  body  the  right 
kinds  and  amounts  of  food.  Children  should  be  encouraged  to 
keep  their  monthly  weight  records,  comparing  them  frequently 
with  the  standards  in  the  tables  given  below.  A  ''  Class- Room 
Weight  Record  "  containing  these  tables,  with  spaces  for  monthly 
records  for  a  group  of  children  throughout  the  school  year,  is 
issued  under  the  authority  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  of  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  and  may  be  obtained  at  a  nominal 
cost  through  that  office  in  Washington  or  through  the  Child 
Health  Organization,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.  The 
latter  organization,  which  is  acting  with  the  National  Child 
Labor  Committee  in  promoting  interest  in  this  important  sub- 
ject, has  other  material  useful  in  the  schoolroom,  including  tags 
to  be  used  in  weighing  contests,  to  carry  the  facts  into  the 
children's  homes. 

161 


l62 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Right  Height  and  Weight 
FOR  Boys  ^ 


Right  Height  and  Weight 
FOR  Girls  1 


Height 

q 

10 

„ 

12 

13 

14  • 

inches 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

45 

49 

. 

46 

51 

47 

53 

54 

48 

55 

56 

57 

49 

58 

58 

59 

50 

60 

60 

61 

62 

51 

62 

63 

64 

65 

52 

64 

65 

67 

68 

53 

67 

68 

69 

70 

71 

54 

70 

71 

72 

73 

74 

55 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 

56 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 

57 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

58 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

59 

87 

88 

89 

90 

92 

60 

91 

92 

93 

94 

97 

61 

95 

97 

99 

102 

62 

100 

102 

104 

106 

63 

105 

107 

109 

III 

64 

"3 

"5 

117 

65 

.  .  . 

.  .  . 

120 

122 

66 

125 

126 

Height   c 

)   10 

II 

12 

13 

14 

inches  yr 

s.  yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

yrs. 

45    4 

9 

46   5 

I 

47   5 

2   53 

48   5 

4   55 

56 

49   5 

6   57 

58 

50   5 

8   59 

60 

61 

51   6 

I   62 

63 

64 

52   6 

4  6s 

66 

67 

53   6 

7   68 

68 

69 

70 

54   6 

9  70 

71 

72 

73 

55   7 

2   73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

56   7 

6  77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

57   • 

.     81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

58   • 

•  85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

59   • 

.  89 

90 

91 

93 

94 

60   . 

.  .  .  . 

94 

95 

97 

99 

61   . 

99 

lOI 

102 

104 

62   . 

.  .  .  . 

104 

106 

107 

109 

63   • 

109 

III 

112 

113 

64   . 

.  .  .  . 

115 

117 

118 

65   . 

117 

119 

120 

66   . 

119 

121 

122 

Rates  of  Gain 

A  boy  should  gain  about  eight  ounces  a  month  from  the  time  he  is 
eight  years  old  until  he  is  twelve  years  old ;  then  he  should  begin  to 
gain  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  ounces  a  month  for  the  next  three  or  four 
years,  returning  to  a  gain  of  eight  ounces  a  month  from  the  ages  of 
sixteen  to  eighteen  years. 

A  girl  should  gain  about  eight  ounces  a  month  from  the  time  she 
is  eight  years  old  until  she  is  eleven  years  old,  twelve  ounces  a  month 

1  Prepared  by  Dr.  Thomas  D.  Wood 


Class-Room  Weight  Record 

Name         *-  "^  sss 

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Sept. 

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HeiEht  and  weight  to  be  taken  in  house  dotbcA  without  ihoea.   Weigh  on  the  same  day  each  month.    Age  the  nearest  binhday. 
E«a  chUd  to  eSter  his  own  weight                                                                                                                                                  «» 

1 64  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

from  the  time  she  is  eleven  years  old  until  she  reaches  the  age  of 
fourteen,  eight  ounces  a  month  from  the  ages  of  fourteen  to  sixteen, 
and  four  ounces  a  month  from  the  ages  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  years. 

In  Chapter  I  attention  is  called  to  the  child's  weight  as 
showing  the  part  he  has  already  taken  in  the  food  business. 
From  this  time  on  he  should  be  taught  to  regard  the  frequent 
taking  of  his  weight  and  the  keeping  of  a  record  of  it  as  a  busi- 
ness man  would  regard  monthly  stock-taking  or  the  making  up 
from  his  books  of  a  trial  balance.  Emphasis  should  be  laid 
on  the  fact  that  it  is  not  necessarily  the  amount  of  food  eaten 
which  is  affecting  this  record  but  the  kind  of  food,  not  the 
expense  but  the  proportion  of  needed  elements.  The  records 
should  not  be  taken  too  seriously,  but  should  be  treated  through- 
out as  a  "trial  balance."  Other  conditions  besides  food  enter  into 
the  matter,  but  food  is  one  of  the  chief  elements,  as  the  child 
who  is  reading  this  book  will  readily  see.  Moreover,  it  is  the  ele- 
ment in  which  the  child  may  take  the  most  active  part  by  con- 
trolling his  appetite  and  directing  his  tastes  into  right  channels. 

In  Chapter  IV  weight  takes  on  a  new  interest  as  an  index  of 
the  number  of  calories  required.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  figures 
are  introduced  chiefly  to  arouse  interest.  The  final  impression 
is  to  be  of  the  importance  of  weight  as  an  index  —  on  the  one 
hand,  of  food  requirements,  and  on  the  other  hand,  of  health. 


II 

THE  GARRISON  RATION  WITH  ITS  SUBSTITUTES 
1918-1919 

From  this  garrison  ration,  referred  to  in  Chapter  II,  the 
child  will  get  his  first  idea  of  an  exact,  scientific  ration  and  of 
the  principle  of  substitutes.    The  basis  of  all  substitution  in 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES 


165 


diet  is  the  actual  food  value  for  body  needs.  The  closer  the 
resemblance  of  a  substitute  to  the  article  which  it  replaces  in 
flavor,  appearance,  and  texture,  the  more  satisfactory  it  is  from 
the  standpoint  of  human  choice  and  instinct,  but  as  a  substitute 
its  only  essential  is  that  it  shall  be  as  nearly  as  possible  equiva- 
lent in  food  value.  This  point  may  be  emphasized  later  in  the 
choice  of  foods  from  the  point  of  view  of  economy. 

Following  the  style  of  this  table,  children  will  enjoy  making 
out  daily  and  weekly  rations.  It  is  suggested  that  they  group 
the  articles  of  their  diet  as  fuel  foods  and  life  foods. 

Garrison  Ration  with  Substitutive  Articles  for  Overseas 


Component  Articles  and  Quantities 


Substitutive  Articles  and  Quantities 

Mutton,  fresh     . 20  oz. 

Bacon 12  oz. 

Ham 12  oz. 

Meat,  canned  when  impracti- 
cable to  furnish  fresh  meat     .  16  oz. 

Hash,  corned  beef  when  im- 
practicable  to   furnish   fresh 

meat 16  oz. 

Turkey,  dressed  and  drawn  on 
Thanksgiving  Day  and  on 
Christmas  Day;  when  practi- 
cable, drawn 16  oz. 

Turkey,  undrawn 19  oz. 

Pork,  salt  —  in  Alaska  only  .    .  16  oz. 

Beef,  salt  —  in  Alaska  only   .    .  22  oz. 

Cheese 4  oz. 

Sausage 12  oz. 

Fish,  dried 14  oz. 

Fish,  pickled 18  oz. 

Fish,  canned 16  oz. 

Fish,  fresh,  drawn 18  oz. 

Fish,  fresh,  undrawn      ....  22  oz. 

Sardines 16  oz. 


Beef,  fresh 20  oz. 


1 66 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Garrison  Ration  with  Substitutive  Articles  for  Overseas 
{Continued) 


Component  Articles  and  Quantities 


Substitutive  Articles  and  Quantities 

Bread,  soft i8  oz. 

Bread,  hard,  to  be  ordered 
issued  only  when  the  in- 
terest of  the  government  so 

requires i6  oz. 

Corn  meal 20  oz. 

Hominy,  fine 16  oz.« 

Crackers,  assorted 16  oz. 

Oatmeal 16  oz. 

Hops 08  oz. 

Yeast 08  oz. 

Yeast  food 08  oz. 

Rice 1.6  oz. 

Beans,  baked,  when  impracti- 
cable to  cook  meals  ....  4  oz. 

Soup,  canned 8  oz. 

Soup,  powdered i  oz. 

Soup,  concentrated i  oz. 

Farina 4  oz. 

Hominy 4  oz. 

Potatoes,  canned 15  oz. 

Potatoes,  sweet 20  oz. 

Potatoes,  sweet,  canned    ...     15  oz. 

Vegetables,  dehydrated     .    .    .    5.5  oz. 

Onions,  in  lieu  of  an  equal 
quantity  of  potatoes,  but  not 
to  exceed  20  per  cent  of  total 
issue. 

Tomatoes,  canned,  in  lieu  of 
an  equal  quantity  of  pota- 
toes, but  not  to  exceed 
20  per  cent  of  the  total 
issue. 


Flour 


18 


Baking  powder 08  oz. 


Beans 


2.4  oz. 


Potatoes 20  oz. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES 


167 


Garrison  Ration  with  Substitutive  Articles  for  Overseas 

{Co7itinued) 


Component  Articles  and  Quantities 

Substitutive  Articles  and  Quantities 

Potatoes  {continued) 

Corn,  sweet,  canned,  in  lieu 
of  an  equal  quantity  of  po- 
tatoes,  but   not   exceeding 
20  per  cent  of  total  issue. 

Peas,  green,   canned,   in  lieu 
of  an  equal  quantity  of  po- 
tatoes,  but   not    exceeding 
20  per  cent  of  total  issue. 

Spinach,    canned,    in   lieu   of 
an  equal  quantity  of  pota- 
toes,   but     not    exceeding 
20  per  cent  of  total  issue. 

Other  fresh   vegetables   (not 
canned)  when  they  can  be 
obtained  in  the  vicinity  or 
transported  in  a  wholesome 
condition  from  a  distance,  in 
lieu  of  an  equal  quantity  of 
potatoes,  but  not  exceeding 
30  per  cent  of  total  issue. 

Prunes 1.28  oz. 

Apples,   dried   0 
Jam,  assorted 

r  evaporated 
Not  to   ex- 

1.28 oz. 

Jelly,  currant 
Apple  butter 

ceed  50  per 
cent  of  total 

2.56  oz. 

Preserves,  ass't 

issue 

Peaches,  canned 

4  oz. 

Pears,  canned     . 
Pineapple,  canne 

4  oz. 
4  oz. 

d 

Coffee,       roasted       and 

Coffee,  roasted,  not  ground    . 

1. 1 2  oz. 

ground 1.120Z. 

Coffee,  green 

Tea,  black  or  green    .... 
Coffee,  instantaneous     .    .    . 

1.4  oz. 
0.32  oz. 
1. 1 2  oz. 

Cocoa 

1. 1 2  oz. 

1 68 


FOOD  AND  LIFE 


Garrison  Ration  with  Substitutive  Articles  for  Overseas 
{Continued) 


Component  Articles  and  Quantities 

Substitutive  Articles  and  Quantities 

Sugar 3.2  oz. 

Milk,    evaporated,    un- 
sweetened     .     .     .     .     2  oz. 

Vinegar       16  gill 

Pickles,  cucumber,  in  lieu  of 
an  equal  quantity  of  vine- 
gar, but  not  exceeding  50 
per  cent  of  total  issue    .    .     0.16  gill 
Pickles,  chowchow     ....     0.16  gill 
Pickles,  mixed 0.16  gill 

Salt 0.64  oz. 

Pepper,  black      ....     0.04  oz. 

Lard 0.64  oz. 

Lard,  substitute 0.64  oz. 

Butter      ...     ....     0.5  oz. 

Oleomargarine 0.5  oz. 

Sirup 0.32  gill 

Molasses 0.32  gill 

American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York 

A  typical  daily  field  ration 
This  should  supply  4199  calories 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES  1 69 

III 

THE  CALORIE 

The  calorie  of  food  tests  is  the  Calorie,  or  "large  calorie," 
of  the  physicist,  the  amount  of  heat  required  to  raise  the  tem- 
perature of  one  kilogram  (2.2046  pounds)  of  water  one  degree 
centigrade.  This  is  very  nearly  the  same  as  the  heat  required 
to  raise  the  temperature  of  four  pounds  of  water  one  degree 
Fahrenheit. 

The  child  who  weighs  a  quart  of  water  will  find  that  it 
weighs  about  two  pounds.  One  calorie  of  heat  will  raise  the 
temperature  of  two  quarts  of  water  about  one  degree  Fahren- 
heit, always  provided  no  heat  is  lost  in  the  surrounding  air  or 
in  the  container.  A  common  unit  for  food  values  is  the  100- 
calorie  portion,  which  amounts  to  an  average  helping  at  table 
of  many  foods.  Such  a  portion  gives  in  the  body,  by  a. rough 
estimate,  heat  equivalent  to  that  involved  in  raising  the  tem- 
perature of  a  quart  of  water  from  the  freezing  to  the  boiling 
point.  To  drink  a  little  over  half  a  cup  of  milk  is  to  release 
in  the  body  heat-energy  corresponding  to  that  used  in  heat- 
ing a  quart  of  ice-cold  water  until  it  boils.  By  comparisons 
like  these  some  idea  may  be  obtained  of  the  amount  of  heat- 
energy  involved  in  the  processes  of  daily  life.  The  pupil 
may  be  reminded  that  the  body  must  be  kept  at  a  tempera- 
ture of  98.6  degrees,  no  matter  what  the  temperature  of  the 
surrounding  air. 

If  the  question  arises  as  to  how  it  is  known  that  actual  heat- 
energy  is  released,  the  method  of  food-testing  in  a  calorimeter 
may  be  described.  A  carefully  weighed  sample  of  food  is 
placed  in  a  capsule  within  a  steel  vessel  or  bomb.  The  bomb 
is  then  charged  with  oxygen  and  is  lowered,  tightly  closed,  into 


170  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

a  larger  vessel,  where  it  is  surrounded  by  a  known  weight  of 
water.  An  electric  spark  starts  combustion.  The  heat  liberated 
in  the  process  of  the  union  between  the  food  and  the  oxygen 
within  the  bomb  raises  the  temperature  of  the  surrounding 
water  as  surely  as  would  a  gas  flame  burning  beneath  the  water. 
From  such  tests  as  these,  carried  out  with  minute  accuracy,  it 
has  been  found  that  a  gram  of  pure  protein  or  of  pure  carbo- 
hydrate yields  in  the  body  four  calories  of  heat,  and  a  gram  of 
fat,  nine  calories.  For  purposes  of  simplicity  protein  has  been 
classed  for  its  essential  qualities  as  a  life  food.  It  always  con- 
tributes some  fuel  value  for  the  body  processes.  If  the  body 
is  short  of  fuel  a  larger  proportion  of  protein  will  be  used  as 
fuel,  but  to  force  the  body  into  using  an  excess  of  protein  as 
fuel  when  cheaper  and  more  satisfactory  fuels  may  be  easily 
supplied  is  like  stoking  a  furnace  with  a  precious  substance 
which  will  burn  but  which  is  more  needed  for  other  purposes. 
The  teacher  who  is  clear  on  these  points  will  make  such  use 
of  them  with  the  class  as  occasion  requires. 

IV 

THE  100-CALORIE  PORTION 

A  general  sense  of  food  as  fuel  is  all  that  is  needful  for 
children.  The  interest  of  the  idea  usually  arouses  the  curiosity 
of  the  child  as  to  the  fuel  value  of  the  food  he  eats.  The  list 
of  lOO-calorie  portions  here  presented  will  satisfy  this  interest 
and  serve  as  a  basis  for  practical  home  application  of  the  facts 
learned.  A  lOO-calorie  portion  is,  in  most  of  the  cases  given, 
an  average  serving  of  the  food  listed.  The  pupil  who  has  come 
to  a  sense  of  money  values  of  food  can  easily  see  the  differ- 
ences in  relative  cost  of  the  various  portions. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES  171 

1  small  corn-meal  muffin 

2  slices  of  white  bread  ^  inch  thick  by  3^  inches  square 

3  small  slices  of  Graham  bread 

1  cubic  inch  of  butter 

A  medium-sized  ripe  banana 
A  large  boiled  egg 

2  scant  level  tablespoonfuls  or  one  heaping  tablespoonful 
of  granulated  sugar 

3^  lumps  of  sugar 

I  cup  of  milk  (whole) 

I I  cup  of  milk  (skim) 
f  to  ^  cup  of  cocoa 

2^  teaspoonfuls  of  peanut  butter 
18  single  medium-sized  peanuts 
f  cup  of  scalloped  potatoes 
^  cup  of  baked  custard 

1  cup  bread  custard  pudding 

^  cup  of  apple-tapioca  pudding 

2  large  molasses  cookies 

2  medium-sized  chocolate  creams 
i^  tablespoonfuls  of  apple  sauce 
^  cup  macaroni  and  cheese 

I  cup  of  oatmeal  (cooked) 

1  large  apple 

^  large  apple  baked  with  two  tablespoonfuls  of  sugar 
^  baked  apple  served  with  whipped  cream 

3  or  4  unstoned  dates 

4  medium-sized  prunes 

2  cooked  prunes  with  two  tablespoonfuls  of  prune  juice 
I  large  bunch  of  grapes 

^  cup  of  grape  juice 

I  large  orange 

I  medium-sized  potato 


172  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

V 
TASTE  AND  SMELL 

Children  will  be  interested  to  prove  by  experiment  on  them- 
selves the  important  part  smell  plays  in  relation  to  the  palatability 
of  food.  At  a  dinner  table  where  the  subject  came  up  recently 
guests  promptly  tested  their  powers  of  taste  by  eating  highly  fla- 
vored mints  with  eyes  and  nostrils  closed.    They  were  amazed 


AMOUNT  OF  LIME  IN 
I  CUP  OF  MILK 


1/2    CUP  OF  CARROTS 


I  EGG 


2  SLICES  OF  BREAD 


to  find  themselves  unable  to  distinguish  between  a  variety  of 
kinds.  Experiments  along  these  lines  help  to  emphasize  the 
truth  that  excellent  food  value  may  reside  in  a  food  which 
does  not  especially  appeal  in  flavor  or  other  appetizing  qualities. 

VI 

MILK 

Too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  laid  on  the  importance 
of  milk  as  a  chief  feature  of  diet  for  children.  The  accom- 
panying charts  indicate  two  points  which  will  interest  and  im- 
press children  and  adults.  Because  milk  is  a  liquid  we  are 
inclined  to  think  of  it  as  a  beverage  rather  than  as  a  food. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES 


^72> 


MILK     IS     A     FOOD 

IT  HAS  MORE  SOLIDS  THAN  ANY  OF  THE 
OTHER  FOODS  LISTED  BELOW 


PERCENT  O 

MILK  ■ 


PINEAPPLE 


The  length  of  each  black  line  on  the  chart  indicates  the 
proportion  of  combined  carbohydrate,  fat,  protein,  and  min- 
eral constituents  in  the  food  listed.  This  represents  what  we 
are  accustomed  to 
call  the  solid  part 
of  the  food.  The 
rest  of  the  hundred 
per  cent  is  water. 
When  the  water 
content  of  each  of 
these  foods  is  ana- 
lyzed, it  exceeds  by 
the  amount  indi- 
cated that  of  milk. 
The  remainder  of 
each  line,  as  it 
could  be  extended 
on  a  wide  black- 
board, might  be 
labeled  "  Water." 
Milk  is  87  per  cent 
water ;  the  per  cent 
of  water  in  the 
other  foods  listed  is 


CAULIFLOWER 


CELERY 

LETTUCE 

CUCUMBER 


UNITED  STATES  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 

BUREAU  OF  ANIMAL  INDUSTRY 
DAIRY  DIVISION 


in  each  case  higher. 

Children  are  interested  in  lime  (calcium)  because  it  is  needed 
for  the  building  and  renewing  of  bones,  teeth,  etc.  The  ordi- 
nary American  diet  is  more  apt,  it  is  said,  to  be  deficient  in 
calcium  than  in  any  other  element.  Milk  is  by  far  the  most 
important  calcium-containing  food  (see  chart,  p.  172).  On  the 
other  hand,  the  iron  content  of  milk  is  low. 


174  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

Another  method  of  approach  to  the  milk  question  is  the  con- 
sideration of  the  dairy  cow  as  the  greatest  animal  food-producing 
machine  in  the  world.  The  figures  here  given  are  from 
Leaflet  Q,  issued  by  the  Massachusetts  Dairy  Bureau,  State 
Board  of  Agriculture.  *'  Take,  for  example,  a  cow  weighing 
looo  pounds  while  in  milking  condition.  Good  dairymen  do 
not  consider  a  cow  worth  keeping  unless  she  gives  6000  pounds 
or  more  of  milk  per  annum.  A  cow  weighing  1000  pounds 
and  yielding  5000  pounds  of  milk  per  year  produces  five  times 
her  own  weight  in  a  food  all  of  which  is  digestible,  and  all  of 
which  is  not  only  the  most  complete  food  known  but  is  also 
the  least  expensive  among  foods  of  animal  origin.  To  produce 
Steer  Beef  requires  2^  to  3  years ;  to  produce  Baby  Beef 
requires  6  to  8  months  ;  to  produce  Veal  requires  6  to  8  weeks ; 
to  produce  Milk  requires  12  hours." 

VII 
SCHOOL  CHILDREN  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT 

The  United  States  School  Garden  Army,  with  its  slogan 

A  Garden  for  Every  Child, 
Every  Child  in  a  Garden, 

is  the  first  national  organization  which  children  in  school  will 
be  likely  to  join.  Inquiries  concerning  its  organization,  badges, 
garden  manuals,  enlistment  sheet,  etc.  should  be  addressed  by 
the  teacher  to 

The  United  States  School  Garden  Army 
Bureau  of  Education 

Department  of  the  Interior 
Washington,  D.  C. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES  1 75 

Any  organization  of  school  children  doing  garden  work  is 
eligible  for  enlistment.  The  number  of  members  in  a  company 
is  from  ten  to  one  hundred  and  fifty.  The  requirement  for 
membership  is  the  signing  of  an  enlistment  sheet  in  which  the 
pupil  agrees  to  raise  one  or  more  food  crops  and  to  keep 
records  of  his  work  and  the  results,  reporting  them  to  the 
teacher  or  garden  supervisor.  Bronze  service  bars,  with  varying 
insignia  for  privates  and  officers,  are  furnished  to  garden  soldiers. 
Every  pupil  enlisting  in  the  School  Garden  Army  is  also 
entitled  to  display  a  service  flag. 

Gardening  is  the  oldest  and  most  essential  of  the  arts.  Long  before 
the  dawn  of  recorded  history  the  human  race  became  proficient  in 
those  garden  practices  that  enabled  it  to  subsist  upon  the  products  of 
the  soil.  ,  .  .  Under  primitive  conditions  this  great  heritage  of  the  race 
became  the  common  property  of  each  succeeding  generation.  It  was 
passed  along  by  the  simple  but  efficient  procedures  through  which  all 
essential  knowledge  descended  from  one  generation  to  another.  In 
modern  times,  however,  living  has  become  so  complex  and  specialized 
that  the  old  methods  are  no  longer  pursued,  and  under  the  conditions 
now  prevailing  a  knowledge  of  garden  practice  comes  only  to  a  few. 
The  old  heritage  is  still  shown,  however,  in  the  universal  love  that 
children  have  for  gardening.  .  .  .  The  recent  stress  of  world  famine 
has  shown  the  imperative  need  of  restoring  the  art  of  gardening  to 
the  educational  curriculum,  and  the  nation-wide  success  of  the  School 
Garden  Army  has  indicated  the  most  efficient  way  of  adapting  the 
study  to  modern  conditions.  The  basic  idea  of  the  School  Garden 
Army  is  to  make  the  study  and  practice  of  gardening  so  essential  a 
part  of  each  school  system  that  every  child  shall  know  the  joy  of 
watching  plants  grow  and  of  learning  through  experience  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  soil.  There  is  no  thought  that  all  these  pupils 
shall  become  farmers,  but  there  is  an  idea  that  they  shall  develop  into 
better  citizens  through  their  knowledge  and  experience. — U.  S.  S.  G.A. 
Leaflet  92. 


176  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  issues  many 
helpful  bulletins  and  pamphlets.  In  extension  work  among  boys 
and  girls  it  cooperates  with  the  State  Boards  of  Agriculture, 
through  which  boys'  and  girls'  canning  clubs,  pig  clubs,  and 
county-fair  exhibits  and  demonstrations  have  been  carried  on 
with  increasing  interest  and  profit  to  all  concerned.  For 
special  publications  of  this  Federal  Department  of  Agriculture, 
write  to  the 

Division  of  Publications 

Department  of  Agriculture 
Washington,  D.  C. 

or  in  case  of  any  question  to  the 

Office  of  Information 

Department  of  Agriculture 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Be  sure,  however,  to  write  also  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
in  your  own  state  for  information  as  to  how  boys  and  girls  of 
the  state  are  organized. 

VIII 

THREE  MEALS  A  DAY 

While  few  children  choose  or  plan  their  meals,  most  children 
regulate  to  a  considerable  degree  their  food  consumption  by  the 
effect  upon  the  family  purchases  of  their  likes  and  dislikes, 
their  choices  and  preferences.  It  is  therefore  worth  while  to 
make  definite  and  practical  their  interest  in  the  subject  by 
charts  and  demonstrations.  A  distinctive  feature  of  this  book 
is  the  grouping  of  the  three  classes  of  foods  taken  primarily 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES 


177 


for  body-building  and  body-running  as  life  foods.    This  brings 
to  the  child,  in  simple  language,  the  new  biological  test  of  food 


'^^EQUATE 


values,  which  emphasizes  the  function  of  a  food  in  its  living 
condition  and  the  proved  effect  of  the  food  on  living  creatures, 
as  the  term  fuel  foods  reflects  the  earlier  chemical  analysis  of 
foods  and  their  grouping  by  calorie  content. 

In  the  chart  ''An  All-round  Diet"  the  basic  division  of  foods 
as  life  foods  and  fuel  foods  is  indicated  at  the  center.     This 


178  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

is  interpreted  in  the  terms,  made  familiar  by  many  govern- 
ment publications,  of  "the  five  food  groups"  :  (i)  vegetables 
and  fruits,  (2)  meats  and  meat  substitutes,  (3)  cereals  and 
other  starchy  foods,  (4)  sweets,  (5)  fats.  This  grouping  is 
given  in  many  articles,  bulletins,  and  leaflets.  It  is  useful  as  a 
practical  guide,  with  its  watchword  :  ''  Choose  some  food  from 
every  one  of  the  five  groups  daily  and  not  too  much  from  any 
one  group."  The  proportions  here  given  indicate  roughly  the 
amounts  approved  by  general  agreement  for  the  average  family 
or  individual,  while  the  budget  division  in  the  outer  circle  is 
based  on  careful  studies  made  in  New  York  City  and  outside  in 
families  of  varying  means  living  under  many  types  of  conditions. 
Another  suggested  proportion  for  a  family  is  as  follows  : 


The  amount  spent  fori 

vegetables  ,      , , 

^    .  ^  should  equaH 

fruit  ^  ^ 

milk 


'the  amount  spent  for 
meat 
fish 
eggs 


IX 
FOR  FURTHER  REFERENCE 


General  List 


Food  and  the  War.  United  States  Food  Administration.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Company.  191 8.    (Government  price,  80  cents,  postpaid.) 

An  excellent  and  extended  summary  of  all  the  newer  food  information 
in  convenient  form. 

LusK,  Graham.    The  Fundamental  Basis  of  Nutrition.  Yale  University 

Press,  1 91 4. 
A  lecture  published  in  six  brief  chapters  for  popular  use.    Other  books 

on  this  subject  by  Dr.  Lusk  will  also  prove  to  be  interesting,  valuable, 

and  simple. 


FACTS  AND  FIGURES  1 79 

McCoLLUM,  E.  V.  The  Newer  Knowledge  of  Nutrition.  The  Macmil- 
lan  Company,  191 8. 

An  invaluable  pioneer  work  describing  experiments  and  far-reaching 
conclusions  in  the  new  biological  estimate  of  food  values.  Popular, 
readable,  and  suggestive. 

Rose,  Mary  S.    Feeding  the  Family.    The  Macmillan  Company,  191 7. 
A  popular  and  accurate  study  with  full  lists,  plans,  dietaries,  and  sugges- 
tions for  every  member  of  the  household. 

Sherman,    Henry    C.     Chemistry   of    Food   and    Nutrition.     2d  ed. 

The  Macmillan  Company,  191 8. 
A  complete  and  scientific  textbook. 

Wardall,  R.  a.  and  White,  E.  N.    A  Study  of  Foods.    Ginn  and 

Company,  191 4. 
A  simple,  all-round  treatment  of  the  subject  from  the  school  standpoint. 

Pamphlets,  Bulletins,  Leaflets 

The  Child  Health  Alphabet.  Child  Health  Organization,  156  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York.    (5  cents.) 

Diet  for  the  School  Child.    Child  Health  Organization.   (10  cents.) 

Food  Allowances  for  Healthy  Children.  New  York  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor.   (10  cents.) 

Food  for  the  Family.  New  York  Association  for  Improving  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Poor.   (5  cents.) 

Food  Primer  for  the  Home.  New  York  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor.    (25  cents.) 

Food  for  Young  Children,  Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  77/,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture. 

How  to  Conduct  a  Nutrition  Class.  Child  Health  Organization.  (10  cents.) 

How  to  Select  Foods.  I.  What  the  Body  Needs.  Farmers'  Bulletin 
A^o.  808,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

Milk,  by  D.  R.  Mendenhall.    Children's  Bureau,  Publication  No.  jj. 

Principles  of  Nutrition  and  the  Nutritive  Value  of  Foods,  Farmers^  Bulle- 
tin No,  142.,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 


l8o  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

Each  year  sees  new  literature  published  by  the  government  on  subjects 
connected  with  food  values,,  home  canning,  the  fireless  cooker,  the 
home  garden,  etc.  Instead  of  listing  here  valuable  publications  on  these 
subjects,  we  suggest  sending  direct  to  Washington  for  lists  which  will 
be  readily  furnished  and  from  which  selection  can  be  made.  The  Chil- 
dren's Bureau  is  issuing  publications  on  which  teachers  will  find  it 
worth  while  to  keep  themselves  informed. 

The  experiments  and  demonstrations  of  the  period  of  the  war  marked 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  food  knowledge  and  food  interest. 
Magazine  articles,  both  of  the  war  period  and  of  to-day,  present  in 
attractive,  readable  form  valuable  matter  which  would  in  former  years 
have  been  available  only  in  technical,  scientific  theses.  The  teacher 
will  find  in  current  magazines  and  in  the  daily  press  supplementary 
material  which  will  contribute  to  the  interest  of  the  schoolroom. 
Advertising  literature  issued  by  reliable  firms  contains  much  practical 
information. 


INDEX 


Animal  foods,  27,  31-32,  34,  46-48, 

50,  86-87 
Appetite,  55-56,  62-66,  76 

Body,  the,  2,  4,  7,  14-20,  21-26,  37- 

38,  41,  53-59.  76-79 
Bread,  31,  34,  62,  89-90,  93-9 5'  Mi. 

143,  146,  171 
Bulk,  how  supplied,  34,  50,  94,  102, 

125,  141 
Buying,  rules  for,  32,   122-125,  177, 

178 

Calories,  21-26,  62,  108,  no,  114-115, 

143,  169-17 1 
Canning,  1 30.-1 31,  133-135,  176 
Cereals,  27,  30-31,  32,  34,  84,87,  123, 

125,  141,  143,  177,  178 
Cooking,  67-73,  77-78,  108-118 

Diet,  an  all-round,  34,  50,  176-178 
Digestion,  40-41,  53-59,  78 
Drying,  130,  131-133 

Eating,   rules   for,   52,    106,    138-144, 

160 
Eggs,  34,  46-48,  50'  92,  122-123,  125, 

171,  178 

Fats,  31-32,  34,  177-178 
Fish,  27,  45-47,  50,  87,  T31,  151,  178 
Fruits,  31,  34,  48,  50,  62,  87,  101-103, 
125,  130-135,  141,  171,  177-178 


Fuel  foods,  30-33,  34,  40,  41,  91,  103, 
104,  123,  141,  177-178 

Gardening,  96-105, 148-149, 157, 174- 
175 

Hunger,  4,  6,  55 

Kitchens,  11 5-1 17 

Life  foods,  38-42,  44-49,  50,  91,  103, 
104,  123,  141,  176-178 

Markets,  82-88,  125 

Meat,   27,  42,  45-48,   50,  68-69,  86, 

122-123,    125,   130,   131,   135,   145, 

177-178 
Milk,  27,   34,   46-48,    50'   86,   89-95, 

123-125,  130,  135,  139,  141,   145' 

172-174 
Minerals,  48-49,  50, 102-104,  141,  172, 

173 

Plant  foods,  27,  30-31,  34,  45'  46,  5°, 

84-87,  101-104 
Proteins,  45-48,  49,  5°,  102-104,  141 

Ration,  the,  9-10,  36-37,  41-42,   108, 
no,  150,  152,  154,  164-168 

Saving,    loo-ioi,    126-127,   128-136, 
150-152,  157 


1 82  FOOD  AND  LIFE 

Smell,  'j^^']'],  79,  172  61,  85-87,   101-104,   130-135,    141, 

Sugars,  31,  34,  61-62,  84-85,  104,  114,  171,  177-178 

125,  130-131,  142  Vitamines,  48,  50,  103-104,  141 

Taste,  53-59,  76-77,  114,  139,  172  Water,  30,  31,  50,  101-104,  132-133, 

138,  173 
Vegetables,  27,  30-31,  34,  45,  48,  50,       Weight,  2,  22-24,  161-164 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


